Document Detail


Individuals receiving addiction treatment: are medical costs of their family members reduced?
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  20491730     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
AIMS: To examine whether alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment is related to reduced medical costs of family members.
DESIGN: Using the administrative databases of a private, integrated health plan, we matched AOD treatment patients with health plan members without AOD disorders on age, gender and utilization, identifying family members of each group.
SETTING: Kaiser Permanente Northern California.
PARTICIPANTS: Family members of abstinent and non-abstinent AOD treatment patients and control family members.
MEASUREMENTS: We measured abstinence at 1 year post-intake and examined health care costs per member-month of family members of AOD patients and of controls through 5 years. We used generalized estimating equation methods to examine differences in average medical cost per member-month for each year, between family members of abstinent and non-abstinent AOD patients and controls. We used multilevel models to examine 4-year cost trajectories, controlling for pre-intake cost, age, gender and family size.
RESULTS: AOD patients' family members had significantly higher costs and more psychiatric and medical conditions than controls in the pre-treatment year. At 2-5 years, each year family members of AOD patients abstinent at 1 year had similar average per member-month medical costs to controls (e.g. difference at year 5 = $2.63; P > 0.82), whereas costs for family members of non-abstinent patients were higher (e.g. difference at year 5 = $35.59; P = 0.06). Family members of AOD patients not abstinent at 1 year, had a trajectory of increasing medical cost (slope = $10.32; P = 0.03) relative to controls.
CONCLUSIONS: Successful AOD treatment is related to medical cost reductions for family members, which may be considered a proxy for their improved health.
Authors:
Constance Weisner; Sujaya Parthasarathy; Charles Moore; Jennifer R Mertens
Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural     Date:  2010-05-14
Journal Detail:
Title:  Addiction (Abingdon, England)     Volume:  105     ISSN:  1360-0443     ISO Abbreviation:  Addiction     Publication Date:  2010 Jul 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2010-07-20     Completed Date:  2011-02-23     Revised Date:  2011-09-26    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  9304118     Medline TA:  Addiction     Country:  England    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  1226-34     Citation Subset:  IM    
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA. constance.weisner@kp.org
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Adult
California
Case-Control Studies
Child
Chronic Disease
Delivery of Health Care, Integrated
Family
Family Health*
Female
Health Care Costs / trends*
Health Services / economics*,  utilization
Health Status
Humans
Male
Models, Statistical
Substance-Related Disorders / economics*,  therapy
Treatment Outcome
Grant Support
ID/Acronym/Agency:
R01 AA015183-02/AA/NIAAA NIH HHS; R01 AA115183/AA/NIAAA NIH HHS
Comments/Corrections

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


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