Comprehensive healthcare resource use among newly diagnosed congestive heart failure

Table 2 Ratio of mean cost of various healthcare services of CHF and non-CHF patients vs. the mean cost of non-CHF primary and secondary MHS physician visits by age group

Type of costs	45–64 years				65–94 years
	Ratio of mean costs of healthcare services of CHF and non-CHF vs. the mean cost of non-CHF physician visits^a				Ratio of mean costs of healthcare services of CHF and non-CHF vs. the mean cost of non-CHF physician visits^a
	Females N = 2014		Males N = 5946		Females N = 11667		Males N = 12492
	CHF	non-CHF	CHF	non-CHF	CHF	non-CHF	CHF	non-CHF
Primary & secondary MHS physicians	2.2	1.00 (reference)	2.5	1.00 (reference)	1.6	1.00 (reference)	1.7	1.00 (reference)
Laboratory tests	0.4	0.2	0.3	0.1	0.3	0.2	0.3	0.1
Other	1.3	0.7	1.6	1.0	1.1	0.8	1.1	1.0
Secondary clinics	6.8	1.8	6.0	1.8	4.2	2.4	4.4	2.5
Medications	5.7	1.1	8.0	1.2	4.8	1.4	4.6	1.4
Hospital-related costs	37.3	4.0	46.7	5.1	23.3	6.0	26.2	7.1
Total expenses	56.3	8.9	74.4	10.0	34.4	11.2	41.3	12.7

^aPatients within the upper 1 percentile of costs per category of services were excluded from the analysis; Ratio of costs of reference categories: Among non-CHF controls, the mean cost of physician visits of the 65–94 age group was 1.12 and 1.61 times that of the 45–64 age group among females and males, respectively. Within age groups, the mean cost of physician visits of female was 1.33 and 0.93 times that of males, in the 45–64 and 65–94 age groups, respectively

ISSN: 2045-4015