Brown JD, et al. - Researchers selected a population of older adults in a large, national, Medicare Advantage plan to compare the relative burden of hospitalizations for community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) vs myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, and osteoporotic fractures (OF), as well as to determine the relative expenditures of preventive measures for each disease. Compared with MI, stroke, and OF, CAP offered a higher burden of hospitalization and total costs but prevention efforts were disproportionately smaller for CAP. In order to achieve a substantial attenuation in the burden of CAP, a need for prioritization of CAP prevention was realized.

Methods

• Using claims data from 2014 to 2015 in this retrospective analysis, researchers compared hospitalizations for CAP, myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, and osteoporotic fractures (OF) in adults aged ≥65 years enrolled in a Medicare Advantage insurance plan.
• Study included individuals who had not already been hospitalized for one of these conditions and did not have evidence of long-term care.
• Length of stay, readmissions, mortality, and total costs were used to describe hospitalizations for each condition.
• Vaccinations for CAP and medications for MI, stroke, and OF were included as preventive measures.

Results

• The cohort comprised 1,949,352 individuals.
• Findings demonstrated that in 2015, the rate of CAP-related hospitalizations was the highest at 846.7 per 100,000 person-years, relative to 405 for MI, 278.9 for stroke, and 343.9 for OF.
• For CAP, the reported vaccination costs were $40.2 million, including $14.1 million for pneumococcal and $26.1 million for influenza vaccines.
• The cost of preventive medications for MI and stroke reached over $661 million and OF totaled $169 million.