Is preventive care utilization associated with lower outpatient and inpatient health‐care expenses among Chinese older adults? A longitudinal analysis

Summary Background China has made major improvements to its health‐care system since the early 21st century. However, the effectiveness of preventive care utilization on health‐care costs remains limited. This study seeks to understand the effect of preventive care utilization on outpatient and inpatient health‐care expenses. Methods With the use of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey with older adults who were 65 years old or above (n = 2828), Tobit regression models were estimated to examine the association of preventive care utilization and expenses with medical treatments. Preventive care utilization in the previous wave was used to predict health‐care costs for treatments in the next wave. Propensity score matching was used to reduce potentially confounding factors. Findings Results indicated that preventive care utilization was positively associated with outpatient health care among Chinese older adults ( β = 231.8, standard error [SE] = 71.5, P < .01). The association between preventive care utilization and inpatient health‐care expenses was not significant. Conclusions Despite the results from previous studies suggesting that preventive care utilization can help reduce health‐care expenses, this study does not support such a claim among Chinese older adults. The long‐term association between preventive care utilization and health‐care expenses for treatment should be studied further.