Spending on Children’s Mental Health Conditions Increases, Study Finds

Pediatric mental health conditions were associated with $4,361-higher total medical spending in 2021, a 31.1% increase from 2017, finds a new study published in JAMA Network Open.

In this study, investigators assessed medical spending for children with a mental health condition from 2017 to 2021. The cross-sectional study used data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, a nationally representative sample of the United States population containing medical spending, use, and household demographics. The source of spending include drugs, office visits, and emergency room visits.

According to the investigators, "[mental health] conditions were identified as diagnoses for any [mental health] condition and also analyzed separately for behavioral disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, anxiety, and depression."

Among children aged 5 to 17 years, investigators estimated the weighted prevalence of mental health diagnoses and total medical spending from 2017 to 2021. They estimated segmented generalized linear regression models to compare difference in spending between children with and without a mental health condition.

Another model was estimated using pooled data to determine the differences in spending in total health care, outpatient, inpatient, drug, and emergency department costs associated with each condition. A similar model was repeated to determine differences in spending between households with a child that has a mental health condition and households without.

Weighted prevalence of mental health diagnoses among children had a relative increase of 21.6%. Overall, total medical spending associated with pediatric mental health conditions were $4,361 higher in 2021, representing a 31.1% increase from 2017. In the study period pooled analysis, spending was higher among all categories.

Among household members, pediatric mental health conditions were associated with $2,337 higher total medical spending in 2021.

The same year, pediatric mental health conditions were associated with $31 billion in child spending and $59 billion in household spending, which made up 46.6% of all pediatric medical spending that year, according to the study investigators.

"These results underscore the large financial burden associated with pediatric [mental health] conditions on the U.S. healthcare system. The associated increase in household member medical spending may warrant family-based approaches to treating pediatric [mental health] conditions," concluded the study authors.

This study first appeared on Contemporary Pediatrics.