Study of relationships between state of mental health and indicators of medical expenses

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to determine the relationships between the state of mental health and indicators of medical expenses for inpatient, outpatient and dental services. METHODS: This study was conducted using data from 140 people (54 males and 86 females) who participated in a lifestyle intervention program. The result of General Health Questionnaire (GHQ)-30 survey performed in August 2003 was used as the indicator of mental health, whereas diagnoses based on International Classification of Diseases (ICD) 10 from medical expense claims in the 2003 fiscal year were used for disease classification by the Proportional Disease Magnitude (PDM) method. The subjects were classified into two groups by GHQ-30 score: low-score group (n=96) and high-score group (n=44). The differences between the two groups were compared by an unpaired t-test. RESULTS: For outpatient service in the high-score group, the medical expenses and the numbers of consulting days, medical expense claims and consultation cases at least two per month were significantly higher (p < 0.05) than those in the low-score group. However, there were no significant differences in the same indicators between inpatient and dental services. In the high-score group, the medical expenses of the XVIII group (symptoms, signs and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings, not elsewhere classified) of ICD10 were also significantly higher (p < 0.05) than those of the low-score group. CONCLUSIONS: The state of mental health is significantly associated with indicators of medical expenses for outpatient service. The medical expenses of a problematic non-mentally healthy group are significantly higher than those of a mentally healthy group.