UTILIZATION AND COST OF HEALTH SERVICES BY CDUs

描述：(申请人提供) 美国的一种传统观点是，在其他条件相同的情况下，有 行为健康问题(S)，如吸毒成瘾，过量消费 相对于没有行为健康的个人的医疗保健 有问题。虽然很少有研究研究这一问题，但使用质量 数据或当代统计方法，最近的一些研究已经 证明慢性吸毒者(即每周或更频繁地使用 前一年的非法药物)通常消耗更昂贵的健康 护理(例如，急诊室就诊、住院日)，但不那么常规 和预防性护理(例如，门诊和就诊)(法语， McGeary等人，2000年；McGeary和法语，2000；法语等人，即将出版)。 根据对佛罗里达州迈阿密慢性吸毒者进行的一项研究 (French，McGeary等人，2000)，估计的成本差异 保健服务利用率每年可能超过1,000美元。考虑到需要 有关目前具有全国代表性的信息，请参阅关于 吸毒者的卫生服务利用情况，这项研究应用将 按慢性病估计卫生服务利用率和费用的差异 吸毒者相对于非慢性吸毒者和非吸毒者使用最多 全国药物滥用家庭调查最近的公共使用文件(即， 1999年)。拟议的二次分析研究具有重要的政策影响 因为几乎没有关于使用率和成本的科学信息 长期吸毒者对健康服务的需求。这样的信息对于 政策制定者、药物滥用规划人员和医疗保健提供者 他们考虑并决定成瘾干预措施。本文的研究意义 也很高，因为最近的研究使用了当代的医疗服务 估算药品卫生服务利用和费用的研究方法 用户。然而，由于这些研究分析了区域数据，因此 重要的是确定区域结果是否与估计值相似 来自国家数据。最后，对慢性吸毒者的检查 与非慢性吸毒者和所有吸毒者相比， 药物滥用研究人员和治疗提供者对 不应将用户视为%1同质组。

DESCRIPTION: (provided by applicant) A conventional view in the U.S. is that, ceteris paribus, individuals with a behavioral health problem(s), such as drug addiction, consume excessive amounts of health care relative to individuals who do not have a behavioral health problem. Although little research has examined this issue employing quality data or contemporary statistical methods, a few recent studies have demonstrated that chronic drug users (i.e., weekly or more frequent use of illicit drugs during the previous year) generally consume more expensive health care (e.g., emergency room visits, inpatient hospital days), but less routine and preventative care (e.g., outpatient clinic and physician visits) (French, McGeary, et al., 2000; McGeary and French, 2000; French, et al., forthcoming). According to one study conducted on chronic drug users in Miami, Florida (French, McGeary, et al., 2000), the estimated differential in the cost of health services utilization may amount to over $1,000 per year. Given the need for current and nationally representative information on the type and cost of health services utilization by drug abusers, this research application will estimate differentials in utilization and cost of health services by chronic drug users relative to non-chronic drug users and non-drug users using the most recent public use file of the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (i.e., 1999). The proposed secondary analysis study has important policy implications because little scientific information is available on the utilization and cost of health services by chronic drug users. Such information is crucial for policy makers, substance abuse program personnel, and health care providers as they consider and decide on addiction interventions. The research significance is also high because recent studies have used contemporary health services research methods to estimate the utilization and cost of health care for drug users. However, since these studies have analyzed regional data, it is important to determine whether the regional results are similar to estimates derived from national data. Finally, the examination of chronic drug users versus non-chronic drug users and all drug users contributes to the growing recognition among substance abuse researchers and treatment providers that drug users should not be treated as a 1 homogeneous group.