Abstract
Hypertension is a significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease and the number of deaths due to hypertension increases annually. The increasing healthcare costs of hypertension are a major societal and personal issue. By estimating the medical expenses incurred by patients with hypertension, this study aimed to provide information on the additional costs of hypertension and emphasize the importance of blood pressure management. Health Panel data from 2014 to 2018 were used to calculate incremental out-of-pocket healthcare costs associated with hypertension. First, we compared the mean annual differences in medical expenditure of people with and without hypertension each year. Second, we analyzed five-year panel data from 2014 to 2018 using random Generalized Least Squares. In a cross-sectional mean difference analysis, we found that as of 2018, individuals with hypertension spent an average of 545,489 won more per year on healthcare than those without hypertension. In a five-year panel data analysis, hypertension was associated with an average of 338,799 won in medical expenses per year for the same sex, age, income groups, number of cormorbility and other lifestyle factor. Hypertension incurs incremental costs in treating the condition and its complications. This study aimed to provide information on out-of-pocket healthcare costs associated with hypertension. We highlight the importance of ongoing disease management by discussing the financial burden of chronic diseases on individuals. Managing blood pressure at a young age can reduce healthcare costs throughout an individual’s lifetime.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles
$119.00 per year
only $9.92 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
Raw data are available from the Korea Health Panel Survey upon requestd.
Code availability
Stata code used for analysis is not disclosed.
References
GBD. Causes of death collaborators. Global, regional, and national age-sex-specific mortality for 282 causes of death in 195 countries and territories, 1980–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. Lancet. 2018;392:1736–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)32203-7.
Fuchs FD, Whelton PK. High blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. Hypertension. 2020;75:285–92. https://doi.org/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.119.14240.
GBD 2017 Risk Factor Collaborators. Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 84 behavioral, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks for 195 countries and territories, 1990–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. Lancet. 2018;392:1923–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)32225-6.
Zhang D, Wang G, Zhang P, Fang J, Ayala C. Medical expenditures associated with hypertension in the US, 2000–2013. Am J Prev Med. 2017;53:S164–71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2017.05.014.
Kirkland EB, Heincelman M, Bishu KG, Schumann SO, Schreiner A, Axon RN, et al. Trends in healthcare expenditures among US adults with hypertension: national estimates, 2003–2014. J Am Heart Assoc. 2018;7:e008731. https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.118.008731.
Lee HY, Beak JK. Cardiovascular risk assessment of Korean hypertensive patients combining national big data and hospital data. National evidence-based healthcare collaborating agency. 2021.
Kokubo Y, Matsumoto C. Hypertension is a risk factor for several types of heart disease: review of prospective studies. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2017;956:419–26. https://doi.org/10.1007/5584_2016_99.
Lawes CM, Bennett DA, Lewington S, Rodgers A. Blood pressure and coronary heart disease: a review of the evidence. Semin Vasc Med. 2002;2:355–68. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-2002-36765.
Dinh NTT, de Graaff B, Campbell JA, Jose MD, Burgess J, Saunder T, et al. Incremental healthcare expenditure attributable to diabetes mellitus: a cost of illness study in Tasmania, Australia. Diabet Med. 2022;39:e14817. https://doi.org/10.1111/dme.14817.
Balu S, Thomas J 3rd. Incremental expenditure of treating hypertension in the United States. Am J Hypertens. 2006;19:810–6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjhyper.2005.12.013.
Hsiao C. Panel data analysis—advantages and challenges. Test. 2007;16:1–22. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11749-007-0046-x.
Adams J, Hosseini M, Peng W, Sibbritt D. Health care utilization and out-of-pocket expenditure associated with hypertension: an analysis of Australian adults from the 45 and up study. J Hum Hypertens. 2020;34:833–40. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41371-020-0363-z.
Seo NK. Examining the Significance of Health Insurance Coverage Rates through an International Comparison. Health and Welfare Policy Forum, 2020;11:65–80. https://doi.org/10.23062/2020.11.6.
Acknowledgements
This study used the Korea Health Panel Survey 2014–2018 Annual Data (Version 1.7.3), jointly organized by the Korea Health and Social Research Institute and the National Health Insurance Service. (Version 2.0.1).
Funding
This research was supported by the Development of a flexible mobile healthcare software platform using 5 G MEC, supported by the Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation, and a grant funded by the Korean government(MSIT). (No.2022000972).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Conceptualization: HMJ. Data curation: KTH. Formal Analysis: HMJ. Funding acquisition: CHJ. Investigation: KBG. Methodology: HMJ, KTH. Software: HMJ. Validation: KBG. Visualization: HMJ. Writing of the original draft: HMJ. Writing, review, and editing: KTH and CHJ.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The Authors have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.
Ethical approval
This study protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Yonsei University’s Health System (No. 4-2023-0617). Informed consent was waived because of the retrospective nature of the study.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Hong, M., Kim, B., Chang, HJ. et al. Incremental health care expenditures associated with hypertension in South Korea. J Hum Hypertens (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41371-024-00892-8
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41371-024-00892-8