CHAPTER 3
 RESULTS

 Pulmonary Conditions

Comorbidity and Expenditures

 Participant characteristics. The pulmonary sample used to determine the

relationship between comorbid depression or anxiety and health care expenditures

consisted of 7,866 respondents. In the sample, 649 respondents had depression and 358

respondents had anxiety (see Table 3-3 for descriptive statistics).

 Results. To determine the relationship between comorbid depression or anxiety and

total health care expenditures after adjusting for demographics (age, sex, race/ethnicity),

socioeconomic status (years of education and income), insurance status, and illness

severity (perceived physical and mental health status, and comorbid conditions), a log-

linear multiple regression was conducted. A significant positive relationship between the

presence of depression in pulmonary patients and total health care expenditures was

found (t = 2.60, p = .01), but anxiety was not significantly related to total health care

expenditures (t = 1.29, p = 0.10). That is, total health care expenditures of the group with

comorbid depression was $8,338.52 more than the group without depression (see Table

3-7). Despite non-significance, the total health care expenditures for the group with

comorbid anxiety was $12,307 more than the group without anxiety.

 To determine the relationship between comorbid depression or anxiety and medical

expenditures after adjusting for demographics (age, sex, race/ethnicity), socioeconomic

status (years of education and income), insurance status, and illness severity (perceived