Relationship Between Body Mass Index and Medical Care Expenditures for North Carolina Adolescents Enrolled in Medicaid in 2004

INTRODUCTION: Many studies document that overweight and obese adults have substantially higher medical care expenditures than do adults of normal weight, but comparable data for children or adolescents are few. This study examines patterns of expenditure for medical care and use of medical care serv...

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Autores principales: Buescher, Paul A., Whitmire, J. Timothy, Plescia, Marcus
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2007
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2248788/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18081993
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author Buescher, Paul A.
Whitmire, J. Timothy
Plescia, Marcus
author_facet Buescher, Paul A.
Whitmire, J. Timothy
Plescia, Marcus
author_sort Buescher, Paul A.
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: Many studies document that overweight and obese adults have substantially higher medical care expenditures than do adults of normal weight, but comparable data for children or adolescents are few. This study examines patterns of expenditure for medical care and use of medical care services among a sample of North Carolina adolescents enrolled in Medicaid, stratified by body mass index categories. METHODS: North Carolina public health records, which include clinically measured height and weight, were linked to 2004 North Carolina Medicaid enrollment records to find adolescents aged 12–18 years whose records matched. We then examined all paid claims for 2004 of the 3528 adolescents whose records matched. Total expenditures by sex and race, hospital costs, physician costs, and prescription drug costs were tabulated and stratified by body mass index. We also examined, by body mass index, the percentage of adolescents who had a paid claim for selected diagnosed health conditions. RESULTS: Overall, and for most demographic and service categories, overweight adolescents and at-risk-for-overweight adolescents had higher average Medicaid expenditures than did normal-weight adolescents. Some of these differences were statistically significant. Overweight adolescents were significantly more likely to have a paid claim for services related to diabetes, asthma, or other respiratory conditions. CONCLUSION: Although based on a small sample, our results suggest that overweight has negative health consequences as early as adolescence. Further studies with larger samples could help confirm the findings of our study.
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spelling pubmed-22487882008-03-06 Relationship Between Body Mass Index and Medical Care Expenditures for North Carolina Adolescents Enrolled in Medicaid in 2004 Buescher, Paul A. Whitmire, J. Timothy Plescia, Marcus Prev Chronic Dis Original Research INTRODUCTION: Many studies document that overweight and obese adults have substantially higher medical care expenditures than do adults of normal weight, but comparable data for children or adolescents are few. This study examines patterns of expenditure for medical care and use of medical care services among a sample of North Carolina adolescents enrolled in Medicaid, stratified by body mass index categories. METHODS: North Carolina public health records, which include clinically measured height and weight, were linked to 2004 North Carolina Medicaid enrollment records to find adolescents aged 12–18 years whose records matched. We then examined all paid claims for 2004 of the 3528 adolescents whose records matched. Total expenditures by sex and race, hospital costs, physician costs, and prescription drug costs were tabulated and stratified by body mass index. We also examined, by body mass index, the percentage of adolescents who had a paid claim for selected diagnosed health conditions. RESULTS: Overall, and for most demographic and service categories, overweight adolescents and at-risk-for-overweight adolescents had higher average Medicaid expenditures than did normal-weight adolescents. Some of these differences were statistically significant. Overweight adolescents were significantly more likely to have a paid claim for services related to diabetes, asthma, or other respiratory conditions. CONCLUSION: Although based on a small sample, our results suggest that overweight has negative health consequences as early as adolescence. Further studies with larger samples could help confirm the findings of our study. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2007-12-15 /pmc/articles/PMC2248788/ /pubmed/18081993 Text en https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is a publication of the U.S. Government. This publication is in the public domain and is therefore without copyright. All text from this work may be reprinted freely. Use of these materials should be properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Research
Buescher, Paul A.
Whitmire, J. Timothy
Plescia, Marcus
Relationship Between Body Mass Index and Medical Care Expenditures for North Carolina Adolescents Enrolled in Medicaid in 2004
title Relationship Between Body Mass Index and Medical Care Expenditures for North Carolina Adolescents Enrolled in Medicaid in 2004
title_full Relationship Between Body Mass Index and Medical Care Expenditures for North Carolina Adolescents Enrolled in Medicaid in 2004
title_fullStr Relationship Between Body Mass Index and Medical Care Expenditures for North Carolina Adolescents Enrolled in Medicaid in 2004
title_full_unstemmed Relationship Between Body Mass Index and Medical Care Expenditures for North Carolina Adolescents Enrolled in Medicaid in 2004
title_short Relationship Between Body Mass Index and Medical Care Expenditures for North Carolina Adolescents Enrolled in Medicaid in 2004
title_sort relationship between body mass index and medical care expenditures for north carolina adolescents enrolled in medicaid in 2004
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2248788/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18081993
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