Review: Health Care Utilization and Costs of Elderly Persons With Multiple Chronic Conditions

This systematic literature review identified and summarized 35 studies that investigated the relationship between multiple chronic conditions (MCCs) and health care utilization outcomes (i.e. physician use, hospital use, medication use) and health care cost outcomes (medication costs, out-of-pocket costs, total health care costs) for elderly general populations. Although synthesis of studies was complicated because of ambiguous definitions and measurements of MCCs, and because of the multitude of outcomes investigated, almost all studies observed a positive association of MCCs and use/costs, many of which found that use/costs significantly increased with each additional condition. Several studies indicate a…