Yun-mi Kim, PhD¹, Kyung Ja June, PhD², Chang-yup Kim, MD³, Eun-Young Kim, PhD³, and Soonae Shin, MPH⁴. (1) Department of Nursing, Seoul Health College, 212 Yangjidong Sujeonggu Seongnamsi, Kyunggido, South Korea, 82-031-740-7183, 2jindol@hanmail.net, (2) Dept. of Nursing, Soonchunhyang University, 366-1 Ssanngyong-dong, Chonan-si, Choongnam, 330-090, South Korea, (3) School of public health, Seoul National University, 28 Yeongun-dong Jeoro-gu, Seoul, 110-799, South Korea, (4) Department of Insured Protection, National Health Insurance Corporation, NHIC Building 168-9 Yumridong Mapogu, Seoul, South Korea

Hypertension and hypertension related diseases are major causes of death (22.3% of total deaths) and important contributors to increasing medical care costs. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a community based hypertension case management program on medical care utilization. The source population of this study was drawn from a cohort of 243,487 hypertension patients built in 2002 who were beneficiaries of the National Health Insurance Corporation (NHIC). NHIC delivered 8 weeks of home visits and telephone based case management services to 306 hypertensive adults from May to August 2003. Control groups were selected using 1:5 individual matching through the multivariate nearest matching method (Kaplan nearest neighbour method) from the hypertension cohort. Medical utilization was measured three times: before and after the 8week program, and during the case management. Before the program, there was no difference in medical care utilization between the two groups. During the program, the number of visits and outpatient treatment fees were lower in the experimental group than in the control group for non-hypertensive diseases (number of visits, 2.54 vs. 3.42; treatment fees, 39,824won vs. 53,204won). After the program, the number of visits, medication days, and outpatient treatment fees were lower in the experimental group than in the control group. These findings suggest that a community based hypertension case management program can be an effective tool for proper medical care utilization.

Learning Objectives:

The participant in this session will be able to
• Describe the implementation of community based case management program for hypertensive adults.
• Recognize the need for case control study in cohort
• Recognize the importance of multivariate nearest matching method(Kaplan nearest neighbour method)

Keywords: Case Management, Cost Issues

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.