Researchers at University of Chicago Target Medical Research (The Impact of Marital Status On Health Care Utilization Among Medicare Beneficiaries)

Health Policy and Law Daily

2019 APR 26 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health Policy and Law Daily -- Current study results on Health and Medicine - Medical Research have been published. According to news reporting out of Chicago, Illinois, by NewsRx editors, research stated, “To explain prior literature showing that married Medicare beneficiaries achieve better health outcomes at half the per person cost of single beneficiaries, we examined different patterns of healthcare utilization as a potential driver. Using the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS) data, we sought to understand utilization patterns in married versus currently-not-married Medicare beneficiaries.”

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from the University of Chicago, “We analyzed the relationship between marital status and healthcare utilization (classified based on setting of care utilization into outpatient, inpatient, and skilled nursing facility (SNF) use) using logistic regression modeling. We specified models to control for possible confounders based on the Andersen model of healthcare utilization. Based on 13,942 respondents in the MCBS dataset, 12,929 had complete data, thus forming the analytic sample, of whom 6473 (50.3%) were married. Of these, 58% (vs. 36% of those currently-not-married) were male, 45% (vs. 47%) were age > 75, 24% (vs. 70%) had a household income below $ 25,000, 18% (vs. 14%) had excellent self-reported general health, and 56% (vs. 36%) had private insurance. Compared to unmarried respondents, married respondents had a trend toward higher odds of having a recent outpatient visit (unadjusted odds ratio (OR) 1.11, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.04-1.19, adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 1.10, (CI) 0.991.22), and lower odds in the year prior to have had an inpatient stay (AOR 0.84, CI 0.72-0.99) or a SNF stay (AOR 0.55, CI 0.40-0.75).”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Based on MCBS data, odds of self-reported inpatient and SNF use were lower among married respondents, while unadjusted odds of outpatient use were higher, compared to currently-not-married beneficiaries.”

For more information on this research see: The Impact of Marital Status On Health Care Utilization Among Medicare Beneficiaries. Medicine, 2019;98(12):. Medicine can be contacted at: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Two Commerce Sq, 2001 Market St, Philadelphia, PA 19103, USA. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; Medicine - http://www.journals.elsevier.com/medicine/)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting K.R. Pandey, University of Chicago, Ctr Hlth & Social Sci, 5841 South Maryland Ave, Mc 1000, Chicago, IL 60637, United States. Additional authors for this research include D.O. Meltzer, F. Yang, K.A. Cagney, F. Smieliauskas and G.W. Ruhnke.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000014871. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.