The high prevalence of multimorbidity among middle-aged and older adults has become a serious issue needing to be addressed by China's healthcare system. The number of chronic diseases is related to health service utilization and medical costs, but there is still a lack of relevant national surveys in China.
To understand the prevalence and features of multimorbidity and to examine its associations with health service utilization and medical costs among middle-aged and older Chinese adults.
Data were collected from the 2018 wave of China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) during April to October 2021, involving 16 674 Chinese adults (≥45 years old) . Multimorbidity was defined as the coexistence of two or more of the self-reported 14 chronic conditions. Health service utilization was measured using inpatient service utilization in the past year and outpatient service utilization in the past month. Medical costs were measured using total inpatient cost and out-of-pocket (OOP) cost for inpatient care in the past one year, total outpatient costs and OOP cost for outpatient care in the past one month. Logistic regression was used to estimate the association between the number of chronic diseases and health service utilization. Quantile regression was adopted to estimate the association between the number of chronic diseases and medical costs.
Of all participants, 9 561 (57.34%) had multimorbidity. 2 624 (15.74%) had utilized inpatient services in the past year, and 2 588 (15.52%) used outpatient services in the past one month. Inpatient service utilization, outpatient service utilization, total inpatient cost, OOP cost for inpatient care, total outpatient cost, and OOP cost for outpatient care varied significantly by the number of chronic diseases (P<0.05) . Multivariate Logistic regression analysis indicated that the number of chronic diseases was associated with inpatient service utilization (P<0.05) . Suffering from 1, 2, 3, 4 and ≥5 chronic diseases was associated with 1.882 times〔95%CI (1.547, 2.290) 〕, 2.939 times〔95%CI (2.429, 3.555) 〕, 4.231 times〔95%CI (3.490, 5.130) 〕, 5.723 times〔95%CI (4.680, 7.000) 〕, and 8.671 times〔95%CI (7.173, 10.482) 〕 higher rate of inpatient service utilization, respectively. Having 1, 2, 3, 4 and ≥5 chronic diseases was associated with 1.684 times〔95%CI (1.421, 1.995) 〕, 2.481 times〔95%CI (2.101, 2.931) 〕, 3.691 times〔95%CI (3.115, 4.374) 〕, 3.774 times〔95%CI (3.134, 4.544) 〕, and 5.577 times〔95%CI (4.698, 6.620) 〕 higher rate of outpatient service utilization, respectively. Each increased chronic disease was associated with an increase in both total inpatient costs and OOP for inpatient care at the upper and middle (50, 75 and 90 percentiles) percentile levels, with larger effects on the upper percentile 〔90th percentile Coeff (95%CI) =1 248.43 (219.20, 2 277.66) for total hospital costs; 90th percentile Coeff (95%CI) =706.36 (266.87, 1 145.86) for OOP for inpatient care〕. Each increased chronic disease was also associated with an increase in both total outpatient costs and OOP for outpatient care, and the effects on the upper percentiles were larger〔90th percentile Coeff (95%CI) =196.33 (31.06, 361.61) for total outpatient costs; 90th percentile Coeff (95%CI) =128.56 (26.83, 230.28) for OOP for outpatient care〕.
In middle-aged and older Chinese adults, multimorbidity was highly prevalent, and the increase in the number of coexisted chronic diseases was associated with higher rate of health service utilization and medical costs. The government should pay more attention on primary care to manage the demand for health services and medical costs associated with multimorbidity.
Chronic diseases have become an important public health problem that affects the economic and social development of country and population health. Quantifying the disease and economic burden of the elderly can provide a better understanding of the impact of chronic diseases on individuals and society.
To understand the prevalence of common chronic diseases among the elderly in Shanxi Province and explore the quality-adjusted life year (QALY) loss and economic loss which caused by chronic diseases.
From June to August in 2019, a multi-stage random sampling method was used to select 3 250 elderly people aged≥ 60 years from 11 cities in Shanxi Province as the research subjects for a questionnaire survey. The questionnaire included general demographic information, disease status survey, and health-related quality of life status. The European Five-Dimensional Health Scale (EQ-5D-5L) was used to assess the health-related life quality of the elderly. The QALY loss caused by chronic diseases was calculated based on the Chinese EQ-5D-5L utility value score system, and the QALY loss and economic loss caused by common chronic diseases in Shanxi Province in 2019 were estimated by using population and GDP per capita from statistical bulletin.
The results of univariate analysis showed that there were significant differences in the utility value of EQ-5D-5L among the elderly with different ages, living regions, educational levels, marital status, and family per capita monthly income (P<0.05) . The results of multiple linear regression analysis showed that higher per capita monthly income of families, being married and younger age were the protective factors for the health utility value of EQ-5D-5L (P<0.05) . The prevalence of chronic diseases among the elderly in Shanxi Province was 58.49% (1 901/3 250) . The top 5 chronic diseases by prevalence were: hypertension 29.45% (957/3 250) , diabetes 10.83% (352/3 250) , rheumatism or rheumatoid arthritis 10.28% (334/3 250) , hearing impairment 8.09% (263/3 250) , gastritis or peptic ulcer 6.49% (211/3 250) . Based on the estimation of the total population of Shanxi Province, the loss of QALY caused by five common chronic diseases in Shanxi Province in 2019 was 2 078 685 years, and the economic loss was 95 045 792 940yuan. The chronic disease causing the most QALY loss and economic loss in Shanxi Province was rheumatism or rheumatoid arthritis in Datong, Taiyuan and Luliang; in Jincheng, Yangquan city was hearing impairment; In Jinzhong, Linfen, Yuncheng, Shuozhou, Xinzhou, Changzhi City was hypertension.
The prevalence of chronic diseases among the elderly in Shanxi Province was relatively high, and chronic diseases will not only cause the loss of QALY of the elderly, but also cause a huge economic burden. Common chronic diseases vary by region in Shanxi Province, each region should determine the priority of disease prevention and treatment according to the actual situation, identify the key objectives and population of health management, so as to achieve a multiplier effect.
Both excessive utilization and underutilization of medical services affect the fairness in the use of medical services. Therefore, studying the concentration of healthcare expenditures on chronic diseases, and analyzing the characteristics of patients with high and low medical expenditures could assess the fairness of the essential medical insurance system.
To analyze the concentration of healthcare expenditures in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients with essential medical insurance coverage.
Data of patients with a first diagnosis of T2DM and coverage of essential medical insurance were collected from the information system of a municipal medical insurance center in Jiangsu Province in July 2019, involving 24 107 cases with urban resident basic medical insurance (URBMI) and 109 265 cases with urban employee basic medical insurance (UEBMI) . Patients in each group were subgroup by the level of personal healthcare expenditure from high to low (percentile subgroups 1-5: top 1%, top 1%-5%, top 5%-10%, top 10%-50% and the remaining 50%) , and inter-percentile subgroup comparisons of the healthcare expenditure, medical insurance reimbursements, health service utilization, and population features were performed.
Both healthcare expenditures and medical insurance reimbursements were highly concentrated in each group of T2DM patients: the healthcare expenditure of patients with URBMI in subgroups 1 and 2 accounted for 66.12% of the total healthcare expenditures, and medical insurance reimbursements of those with URBMI in subgroups 1, 2 and 3 accounted for 82.97% of the total medical insurance reimbursements. The healthcare expenditure of patients with UEBMI in subgroups 1 and 2 occupied 43.12% of the total healthcare expenditure, and medical insurance reimbursements of those with UEBMI in subgroups 1, 2 and 3 occupied 61.62% of the total medical insurance reimbursements. Gender, age and the perferred medical institutions were significantly different between patients in subgroups 1 and 2 and those in other three subgroups, and between patients in subgroups 1, 2, 3, and 4, and those in subgroup 5 regardless of the type of medical insurance (URBMI or UEBMI) (P<0.05) .
The healthcare expenditures and medical insurance reimbursements in insured T2DM patients were highly concentrated. In particular, the level of concentration of medical insurance reimbursements in those with URBMI was higher than that of those with UEBMI. The high concentration of healthcare expenditures indicates that T2DM patients with high healthcare expenditures may have excessive medical utilization and moral risk. Policy effort should be paid to the reimbursements level of those with low-to-moderate healthcare expenditures, and to improve their access to healthcare services.
