TY - JOUR T1 - Burden of cirrhosis on older Americans and their families: analysis of the health and retirement study. JF - Hepatology Y1 - 2012 A1 - M. O. Rakoski A1 - Ryan J McCammon A1 - John D Piette A1 - Theodore J Iwashyna A1 - J. A. Marrero A1 - Lok, Anna S A1 - Kenneth M. Langa A1 - Volk, Michael L KW - Aged KW - Black People KW - Caregivers KW - Comorbidity KW - Cost of Illness KW - Databases, Factual KW - Disability Evaluation KW - Female KW - Health Care Costs KW - Health Status KW - Hispanic or Latino KW - Humans KW - Incidence KW - Liver Cirrhosis KW - Male KW - Medicaid KW - Medicare KW - Prevalence KW - Prospective Studies KW - Retirement KW - United States KW - White People AB -
UNLABELLED: Prevalence of cirrhosis among older adults is expected to increase; therefore, we studied the health status, functional disability, and need for supportive care in a large national sample of individuals with cirrhosis. A prospective cohort of individuals with cirrhosis was identified within the longitudinal, nationally representative Health and Retirement Study. Cirrhosis cases were identified in linked Medicare data via ICD-9-CM (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification) codes and compared to an age-matched cohort without cirrhosis. Two primary outcome domains were assessed: (1) patients' health status (perceived health status, comorbidities, health care utilization, and functional disability as determined by activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living), and (2) informal caregiving (hours of caregiving provided by a primary informal caregiver and associated cost). Adjusted negative binomial regression was used to assess the association between cirrhosis and functional disability. A total of 317 individuals with cirrhosis and 951 age-matched comparators were identified. Relative to the comparison group, individuals with cirrhosis had worse self-reported health status, more comorbidities, and used significantly more health care services (hospitalizations, nursing home stays, physician visits; P < 0.001 for all bivariable comparisons). They also had greater functional disability (P < 0.001 for activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living), despite adjustment for covariates such as comorbidities and health care utilization. Individuals with cirrhosis received more than twice the number of informal caregiving hours per week (P < 0.001), at an annual cost of US $4700 per person.
CONCLUSION: Older Americans with cirrhosis have high rates of disability, health care utilization, and need for informal caregiving. Improved care coordination and caregiver support is necessary to optimize management of this frail population.
PB - 55 VL - 55 IS - 1 U1 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21858847?dopt=Abstract U2 - PMC3462487 U4 - alcohol Abuse/cirrhosis/cirrhosis/Self assessed health/COMORBIDITY/health care/HOSPITALIZATION/physician visits/physician visits ER -