Individuals with hypertension have a higher annual adjusted incremental expenditure of $1,920, according to a study published online May 30 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Elizabeth B. Kirkland, M.D., from the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, and colleagues used data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey to calculate the estimated annual health care expenditure for patients with hypertension and measure trends in expenditure longitudinally over a 12-year period. Adjusted incremental expenditures were estimated for individuals with and without hypertension. Pooled data from 2003 to 2014 were included for 224,920 adults, 36.9 percent of whom had hypertension.

The researchers found that the mean annual medical expenditure attributable to patients with hypertension was $9,089 in unadjusted analyses. Individuals with hypertension had a $1,920 higher annual adjusted incremental expenditure relative to individuals without hypertension, and they had 2.5 times the inpatient cost, almost double the outpatient cost, and almost triple the prescription medication expenditure. Based on the U.S. prevalence of hypertension, the estimated adjusted annual incremental cost was $131 billion per year higher for adults with versus those without hypertension.

"Individuals with hypertension are estimated to face nearly $2,000 higher annual health care expenditure compared with their non-hypertensive peers," the authors write. "This trend has been relatively stable over 12 years."

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