Comparative Analysis of Health Care Expenditures and Presence of Mental Health Conditions of HIV-Affected Versus Non-HIV-Affected Children

Abstract

As HIV/AIDS mortality rates improve, more and more HIV-infected parent(s) are bearing HIV-negative children. Using a comprehensive national medical cost data, this study compared the health care expenditures (prescription and nonprescription) of HIV-affected and non-HIV-affected children, with a special focus on the impact of mental health conditions on expenditures. Post matching, multivariate analysis showed the HIV-affected children's prescription expenditures are significantly less compared to non-HIV-affected children. However, HIV-affected children with mental health conditions incurred greater: total health care expenditures (4.0 times), nonprescription health care expenditures (3.1 times), and prescription expenditures (8.7 times) compared to the respective expenditures of other children in the study

KEYWORDS:

• AIDS
• health care expenditure
• HIV
• HIV-affected children
• HIV-affected families
• HIV-parents
• mental health
• uninfected children

Acknowledgments

During the time of this study, Dr. Ganguli was a doctoral student at Division of Health Outcomes & Policy Research, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, University of Tennessee Health Science Center. Dr. Ganguli is currently a full-time employee of Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, Illinois.

The authors acknowledge the assistance of Dr. Rose Rubin in editing the final version of the article.

Notes

FPL = federal poverty line.

^a Reference group is the non–HIV-affected children.

^b Values are the natural exponential [exp(β1)] of the regression coefficient. FPL = federal poverty line.