University of Queensland Reports Findings in Mental Health Diseases and Conditions (Excess healthcare costs of psychological distress in young women: Evidence from linked national Medicare claims data): Mental Health Diseases and Conditions

2022 DEC 22 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- New research on Mental Health Diseases and Conditions is the subject of a report. According to news reporting from St. Lucia, Australia, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “The prevalence of mental health disorders in young adults is increasing, yet there is limited empirical evidence on its economic consequences. We contribute to the literature by estimating the healthcare costs of psychological distress using panel data of young women (aged 18-23 years with a 5-year follow-up) from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health and linked administrative data from Medicare Australia.”

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from the University of Queensland, “Our empirical strategy is based on the classical two-part model of healthcare costs with individual specific fixed-effects. We complement our analysis with a test for selection on unobservables to address potential concerns of endogeneity. We find that young women with psychological distress have 15% higher annual healthcare costs (excluding hospital costs) than women with no psychological distress. A large proportion of these costs is driven by the use of antidepressants and the services of psychiatrists and psychologists. We further find that women with psychological distress have higher out-of-pocket costs on these mental health related services compared to non-mental health specific services. Additionally, we show that the effect of psychological distress on healthcare costs is highest during the first 6 months of onset, which gradually decreases afterwards.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “The findings justify the importance of policy initiatives towards early prevention and treatment of psychological distress, especially among young women.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Excess healthcare costs of psychological distress in young women: Evidence from linked national Medicare claims data. Health Economics, 2022. Health Economics can be contacted at: Wiley, 111 River St, Hoboken 07030-5774, NJ, USA. (Wiley-Blackwell - http://www.wiley.com/; Health Economics - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-1050)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Brenda Gannon, School of Economics and Centre for the Business and Economics of Health, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia. Additional authors for this research include Danusha Jayawardana, Jenny Doust and Gita D. Mishra.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.4641. 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.

Publisher contact information for the journal Health Economics is: Wiley, 111 River St, Hoboken 07030-5774, NJ, USA.

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