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Abstract #154644

Xin Yan, MD¹, Hua Shen², Charles Loh, PhD³, Jianzhong Shao, PhD³, Yuhong Yang, PhD⁴, Jun Wang, PhD², and Chunling Lu, PhD⁵. (1) The Institute of Chongqing Traditional Chinese Medicine China, c/o New Medical Science Research Institute, 250 W. 57th St. 1003, New York, NY 10107, (2) New Medical Science Research Institute, 250 W. 57th St. 1003, New York, NY 10107, (3) Vancouver Yan Xin Life Science & Technology Center, P.O.BOX 3333, Vancouver, BC V6B 3Y3, Canada, (4) School of Statistics, University of Minnesota, 224 Church Street, Minneapolis, MN 55455, (5) Global Health Initiative, Harvard University, 104 Mt. Auburn Street, Cambridge, MA, MA 02138, 617-495-4866, chunling_lu@harvard.edu

Introduction: The rise of medical spending poses a big challenge to developed countries as well as developing countries alike. Previous studies have shown that Yan Xin Qigong (YXQ) has significant effects on health promotion and laboratory experiments suggest possible physiological pathways. These results suggest the practice of YXQ is linked to reductions in medical costs among participating individuals.

Purpose: To investigate the change of medical spending before and after learning YXQ among participants with a longitudinal study using medical claims data.

Method: We obtained Medical Claims History Record from Ministry of Health in BC for 253 YXQ participants in Vancouver in BC, Canada. The time frame of the data is from 1995 to 2002. Claims data include expenditures from each visit billed by medical care providers. A longitudinal data allows us to use random effect model which controls for time-invariant unobserved factors that may be correlated with medical spending and YXQ participation.

Results: YXQ participation significantly decreased medical spending. Length of participation in YXQ was inversely correlated with levels of medical spending. In comparison to the general population in which the average medical spending increases over the course of the study, the average medical spending among YXQ participants dropped continuously over 7 years.

Conclusion: Our study suggests that YXQ can be an effective approach in controlling for medical costs by promoting participants' health.

Learning Objectives:

• - Discuss the relationship between the change of medical spending and YXQ participating.
• - Understand the method used in analysis and apply it to similar research.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No
Any institutionally-contracted trials related to this submission?

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.