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Table 1 Patient characteristics during the 12 months prior to the index date

From: Assessing the economic burden of Alzheimer’s disease patients first diagnosed by specialists

Selected Characteristics

Before Matching

After Matching

 

Specialist (n = 2593)

No Specialist (n = 13,961)

p-Value*

Specialist (n = 2503)

No Specialist (n = 2503)

p-Value**

Age on index date, mean (SD)

78.8 (8.7)

80.8 (8.2)

<0.0001

79.1 (8.3)

79.3 (8.1)

0.3593

% male

40 %

34 %

<0.0001

40 %

39 %

0.4781

Charlson Comorbidity Index, mean (SD)

2.2 (2.2)

1.9 (2.1)

<0.0001

2.1 (2.1)

2.1 (2.1)

0.5307

Comorbidities, %

      

 Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

18 %

17 %

0.8061

17 %

18 %

0.2465

 Depression

20 %

18 %

0.0890

19 %

20 %

0.4097

 Diabetes

31 %

29 %

0.1159

30 %

33 %

0.0123

 Epilepsy

4 %

2 %

<0.0001

3 %

2 %

0.0080

 Hyperlipidemia

62 %

52 %

<0.0001

61 %

63 %

0.1431

 Hypertension

78 %

76 %

0.0270

77 %

80 %

0.0059

 Ischemic heart disease

37 %

31 %

<0.0001

36 %

35 %

0.1537

 Other cardiovascular conditions

60 %

55 %

<0.0001

59 %

58 %

0.4371

 Stroke/cerebrovascular disease

28 %

20 %

<0.0001

27 %

20 %

<0.0001

 Urinary tract infection

22 %

21 %

0.7036

21 %

23 %

0.0579

Time to AD diagnosis, mean (SD)

3.6 (6.2)

4.9 (7.2)

<0.0001

3.5 (6.2)

4.6 (6.8)

<0.0001

Months of follow-up, mean (SD)

29.8 (9.8)

31.2 (10.2)

<0.0001

29.9 (9.8)

30.1 (10.0)

0.0105

Total healthcare costs, mean (SD)a

$15,058 ($26,139)

$13,339 ($24,356)

<0.0001

$12,497 ($18,789)

$12,503 ($18,797)

0.5597

  1. *Calculated using Wilcoxon-rank sum tests for continuous variables and chi-square tests for categorical variables
  2. **Calculated using Wilcoxon signed-rank tests for continuous variables and McNemar’s tests for categorical variables
  3. aDollar values were inflated to 2012 US dollars using the medical care component of the Consumer Price Index
  4. Note: Patients were one-to-one matched based on patients’ age, gender, year of index date, Charlson Comorbidity Index, hyperlipidemia, and depression by propensity scores greedy method