Doctor shopping tied to increased rate of emergency department visits for overweight, obese
FRIDAY, May 24 (HealthDay News) -- Doctor shopping is more likely among overweight and obese individuals and is associated with a significantly increased rate of emergency department visits, according to research published online May 13 in Obesity.
Kimberly A. Gudzune, M.D., M.P.H., from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, and colleagues combined claim data from a health plan in one state with information from 20,726 beneficiaries' health risk assessments. The authors sought to examine whether overweight and obese patients would be more likely to doctor shop (have outpatient claims with five or more different primary care physicians over a 24-month period), and consequently have increased rates of emergency department visits and hospitalizations.
The researchers found that overweight and obese beneficiaries had significantly increased odds of doctor shopping (odds ratio, 1.23 and 1.52, respectively) compared with normal-weight beneficiaries. Overweight and obese shoppers had higher rates of emergency department visits (incidence rate ratio [IRR], 1.85 and 1.83, respectively) compared with normal-weight non-shoppers. These higher rates persisted during weight group comparisons (overweight IRR, 1.50; obese IRR, 1.54). The incidence of hospitalization was increased for overweight and obese versus normal-weight shoppers, but the correlation was not statistically significant.
"Interventions targeting doctor-shopping behavior could decrease inappropriate use of high-cost services such as emergency department visits and hospitalizations," the authors write.
Unrestricted grants from medical product and pharmaceutical companies were provided to help fund the initial database development.
Abstract
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