Direct health and residential care costs of people living with dementia in Australian residential aged care
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Author(s)
Gnanamanickam, Emmanuel S
Dyer, Suzanne M
Milte, Rachel
Harrison, Stephanie L
Liu, Enwu
Easton, Tiffany
Bradley, Clare
Bilton, Rebecca
Shulver, Wendy
Ratcliffe, Julie
Whitehead, Craig
Crotty, Maria
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2018
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Objectives:
This analysis estimates the whole‐of‐system direct costs for people living with dementia in residential care by using a broad health and social care provision perspective and compares it to people without dementia living in residential care.
Methods:
Data were collected from 541 individuals living permanently in 17 care facilities across Australia. The annual cost of health and residential care was determined by using individual resource use data and reported by the dementia status of the individuals.
Results:
The average annual whole‐of‐system cost for people living with dementia in residential care was ...
View more >Objectives: This analysis estimates the whole‐of‐system direct costs for people living with dementia in residential care by using a broad health and social care provision perspective and compares it to people without dementia living in residential care. Methods: Data were collected from 541 individuals living permanently in 17 care facilities across Australia. The annual cost of health and residential care was determined by using individual resource use data and reported by the dementia status of the individuals. Results: The average annual whole‐of‐system cost for people living with dementia in residential care was approximately AU$88 000 (US$ 67 100) per person in 2016. The cost of residential care constituted 93% of the total costs. The direct health care costs were comprised mainly of hospital admissions (48%), pharmaceuticals (31%) and out‐of‐hospital attendances (15%). While total costs were not significantly different between those with and without dementia, the cost of residential care was significantly higher and the cost of health care was significantly lower for people living with dementia. Conclusion: This study provides the first estimate of the whole‐of‐system costs of providing health and residential care for people living with dementia in residential aged care in Australia using individual level health and social care data. This predominantly bottom‐up cost estimate indicates the high cost associated with caring for people with dementia living permanently in residential care, which is underestimated when limited cost perspectives or top‐down, population costing approaches are taken.
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View more >Objectives: This analysis estimates the whole‐of‐system direct costs for people living with dementia in residential care by using a broad health and social care provision perspective and compares it to people without dementia living in residential care. Methods: Data were collected from 541 individuals living permanently in 17 care facilities across Australia. The annual cost of health and residential care was determined by using individual resource use data and reported by the dementia status of the individuals. Results: The average annual whole‐of‐system cost for people living with dementia in residential care was approximately AU$88 000 (US$ 67 100) per person in 2016. The cost of residential care constituted 93% of the total costs. The direct health care costs were comprised mainly of hospital admissions (48%), pharmaceuticals (31%) and out‐of‐hospital attendances (15%). While total costs were not significantly different between those with and without dementia, the cost of residential care was significantly higher and the cost of health care was significantly lower for people living with dementia. Conclusion: This study provides the first estimate of the whole‐of‐system costs of providing health and residential care for people living with dementia in residential aged care in Australia using individual level health and social care data. This predominantly bottom‐up cost estimate indicates the high cost associated with caring for people with dementia living permanently in residential care, which is underestimated when limited cost perspectives or top‐down, population costing approaches are taken.
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Journal Title
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRY
Volume
33
Issue
7
Copyright Statement
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial‐NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non‐commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
© 2018 The Authors. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Subject
Clinical sciences
Health services and systems
Public health
Psychology
Cognitive and computational psychology