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Activity limitations predict health care expenditures in the general population in Belgium

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Public Health, March 2015
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Title
Activity limitations predict health care expenditures in the general population in Belgium
Published in
BMC Public Health, March 2015
DOI 10.1186/s12889-015-1607-7
Pubmed ID
Authors

Johan Van der Heyden, Herman Van Oyen, Nicolas Berger, Dirk De Bacquer, Koen Van Herck

Abstract

Disability and chronic conditions both have an impact on health expenditures and although they are conceptually related, they present different dimensions of ill-health. Recent concepts of disability combine a biological understanding of impairment with the social dimension of activity limitation and resulted in the development of the Global Activity Limitation Indicator (GALI). This paper reports on the predictive value of the GALI on health care expenditures in relation to the presence of chronic conditions. Data from the Belgian Health Interview Survey 2008 were linked with data from the compulsory national health insurance (n = 7,286). The effect of activity limitation on health care expenditures was assessed via cost ratios from multivariate linear regression models. To study the factors contributing to the difference in health expenditure between persons with and without activity limitations, the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition method was used. Activity limitations are a strong determinant of health care expenditures. People with severe activity limitations (5.1%) accounted for 16.9% of the total health expenditure, whereas those without activity limitations (79.0%), were responsible for 51.5% of the total health expenditure. These observed differences in health care expenditures can to some extent be explained by chronic conditions, but activity limitations also contribute substantially to higher health care expenditures in the absence of chronic conditions (cost ratio 2.46; 95% CI 1.74-3.48 for moderate and 4.45; 95% CI 2.47-8.02 for severe activity limitations). The association between activity limitation and health care expenditures is stronger for reimbursed health care costs than for out-of-pocket payments. In the absence of chronic conditions, activity limitations appear to be an important determinant of health care expenditures. To make projections on health care expenditures, routine data on activity limitations are essential and complementary to data on chronic conditions.

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The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 3 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 38 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 38 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 7 18%
Researcher 6 16%
Student > Doctoral Student 3 8%
Professor 3 8%
Student > Ph. D. Student 3 8%
Other 6 16%
Unknown 10 26%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 11 29%
Nursing and Health Professions 5 13%
Economics, Econometrics and Finance 5 13%
Engineering 3 8%
Social Sciences 3 8%
Other 2 5%
Unknown 9 24%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 2. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 20 May 2015.
All research outputs
#14,219,838
of 22,796,179 outputs
Outputs from BMC Public Health
#10,329
of 14,855 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#139,169
of 263,733 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Public Health
#205
of 306 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,796,179 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 35th percentile – i.e., 35% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 14,855 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 13.9. This one is in the 27th percentile – i.e., 27% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 263,733 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 44th percentile – i.e., 44% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 306 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 31st percentile – i.e., 31% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.