BACKGROUND Risk adjustment models were used to estimate health care consumption after adjusting for individual characteristics or other factors. The results of this technique were not satisfying. One reason could be that the length of time to document consumption might be associated with the mean and variance of observed health care consumption. This study aims to use a simplified mathematical ...

BACKGROUND While studies have demonstrated the economic burden of migraines in terms of quality of life, health care resource use (HRU), and costs, there exists a notable paucity of data comparing such outcomes among migraineurs with nausea and vomiting (N/V) and those without. The current study aimed to address this gap. METHODS This was a retrospective study using data from the 2013 US Nati...

The goal of air pollution reduction strategies in NJ is not merely to achieve regulatory compliance, but also to protect the public health of its citizens. It is therefore important to evaluate progress in ozone reduction by examining the extent to which health effects associated with ozone are being reduced. Previous studies have established an association between atmospheric ozone concentrati...

BACKGROUND The Program for All-inclusive Care of the Elderly (PACE) has been hailed as successful but of limited appeal. This study contrasts the effects on hospital utilization of PACE and a more liberal variant, the Wisconsin Partnership Program (WPP). METHODS Hospital and emergency room (ER) utilization data from two sites that used both PACE and WPP to serve elderly clients were compared....

OBJECTIVE To compare total medical costs and utilization over a 12-month period in commercially insured patients receiving FDA-approved adjunctive atypical antipsychotics (aripiprazole, olanzapine, or quetiapine) for depression. METHODS A retrospective claims analysis was conducted from 2005-2010 using the PharMetrics database. Subjects were adult commercial health-plan members with depressio...

Background: This study documented elevated rates of emergency room (ER) visits for acute upper and lower respiratory infections and asthma-related conditions in the children of Quito, Ecuador associated with the eruption of Guagua Pichincha in April of 2000. Methods: We abstracted 5169 (43% females) ER records with primary respiratory conditions treated from January 1 – December 27, 2000 and ex...

BACKGROUND Trials have not assessed the effect of dalfampridine-extended release (dalfampridine-ER) on health utility. We sought to evaluate the effect of dalfampridine-ER tablets (prolonged-release fampridine in Europe) on health utility in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) by mapping subjects' individual item scores from the 12-Item Multiple Sclerosis Walking Scale (MSWS-12) onto the Euro...

BACKGROUND Health literacy presents an enormous challenge in the delivery of effective healthcare and quality outcomes. We evaluated the impact of low health literacy (LHL) on healthcare utilization and healthcare expenditure. METHODS Database analysis used Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) from 2005-2008 which provides nationally representative estimates of healthcare utilization and e...

Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) has rapidly become a major cause of upper gastrointestinal morbidity and associated financial burden. Related evidence on healthcare resource utilization (HCRU) costs is sparse. We aimed to evaluate HCRU in patients with EoE. This matched case-control study used US medical pharmacy claims from the Optum Clinformatics database (1/1/08–9/30/20) identify EoE (cases) ...