Cardiovascular Health at Young and Middle Ages and Medical Care Costs at Old Age

Introduction: We investigate the association between cardiovascular health at young and middle age and medical care costs and utilization in old age. Methods: We linked Chicago Heart Association (CHA) study participants’ baseline cardiovascular health (CVH) (18-59 yrs) to their Medicare claims (1991-2010) for all Part A and Part B services, including inpatient and skilled nursing facility, outpatient, home health, durable medical equipment, and hospice care. Baseline CVH is a composite measure of BP, cholesterol, diabetes, BMI, and smoking and is divided into four strata representing increasing burden. Medical care utilization (e.g., admissions and visits) and costs (in 2010 dollars) were calculated from the claims. We analyzed both the overall costs and the composition of costs among various medical care services and by CVD (non-CVD) morbidity and sex. Conditional quantile regressions were used to estimate the association between increased CVH and costs and negative binomial regressions were used for the...