An examination of the factors that influence costs in medical patients with health anxiety

Abstract

Objective: To measure and document the total service cost of patients with health anxiety and to investigate the statistical association between costs and patient characteristics, levels of anxiety and other clinical characteristics.

Methods: Data on services used by 444 people with high health anxiety from five types of secondary care medical outpatient clinics were collected in interview with patients by self-report for the preceding six months. Costs associated with these services were calculated and personal and clinical factors associated with these costs were explored.

Results: Mean total costs over six months were £2976 per participant and ranged from £146 to £25,200. The regression model found higher costs were significantly associated with poorer social functioning and self-reported health-related quality of life. No statistical association was found between severity of health anxiety and cost, and generalised anxiety was inversely related.

Conclusion: The findings suggest that a re-examination of the simple causative relationship between health anxiety and cost in the health anxious is warranted.