Healthcare Costs of Depression in Patients Diagnosed with Cancer.

Healthcare Costs of Depression in Patients Diagnosed with Cancer.

Psychooncology. 2018 Mar 30;:

Authors: Mausbach BT, Yeung P, Bos T, Irwin SA

Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Depression is common among patients diagnosed with cancer. Patients with cancer and depression utilize more healthcare services compared to non-depressed cancer patients. The current study seeks to estimate the added cost of depression in cancer patients in the first year after cancer diagnosis.
METHODS: Healthcare charges were obtained for 2,051 depressed and 11,182 non-depressed patients with an ICD-9 diagnosis of cancer in the 2014 calendar year from the University of California San Diego Healthcare System. The annual healthcare charges for cancer patients with and without depression were analyzed using generalized linear models with a log link function and gamma distribution, covarying for age, sex, race/ethnicity, comorbid diseases, and presence of metastatic disease. Total cost data were broken down into several categories including ambulatory care, emergency department visits, and hospital visits.
RESULTS: Depressed cancer patients had total annual healthcare charges that were 113% higher than non-depressed cancer patients (B = 0.76; p < 0.001). The estimated mean charges for depressed patients was $235,337 compared to $110,650 for non-depressed patients. Depressed cancer patients incurred greater charges than non-depressed patients in ambulatory care (B = 0.70; p < 0.001), emergency department charges (B = 0.31; p < 0.001), and hospital charges (B = 0.39; p < 0.001).
CONCLUSIONS: Depressed cancer patients incur significantly higher healthcare charges across multiple cost categories including ambulatory care, emergency department visits, and hospital visits. Future research should investigate if interventions for detecting and treating depression are effective for reducing healthcare use and costs in cancer patients.

PMID: 29601657 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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