Tepper S, Sutton J, Beatty P, DeJong G
National Rehabilitation Hospital Research Center, Washington, DC 20010, USA.
Disabil Rehabil. 1997 Dec;19(12):556-8. doi: 10.3109/09638289709166050.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between different definitions of disability and health-care expenditures in the working aged population in the United States using the 1987 National Medical Expenditure Survey (NMES). Five different definitions of disability were identified and the health-care expenditures for each group were compared using descriptive analyses. Results reveal that estimates of the prevalence of disability vary dramatically by the definition of disability. A more than three-fold difference in average total health-care expenditures is observed using different specifications of disability. These results suggest that estimates of health-care expenditures should be interpreted cautiously, since the definition influences the magnitude of estimates. Researchers and policy-makers should consider the standardization of the term 'disability'.
本研究旨在利用1987年全国医疗支出调查（NMES），调查美国劳动年龄人口中不同残疾定义与医疗保健支出之间的关系。确定了五种不同的残疾定义，并使用描述性分析比较了每组的医疗保健支出。结果显示，残疾患病率的估计因残疾定义的不同而有很大差异。使用不同的残疾规格，平均总医疗保健支出存在三倍以上的差异。这些结果表明，医疗保健支出的估计应谨慎解释，因为定义会影响估计的幅度。研究人员和政策制定者应考虑“残疾”一词的标准化。
