Sensitivity of Nursing Home Cost Comparisons to Method of Dementia Diagnosis Ascertainment

Table 2

Resident characteristics of dementia cases, and significance of differences, by ascertainment method.

	Mean or percent								Significance of differences
	No dementia	Dementia cases							Comparisons of dementia
									missed by method+
	Any method	Any method	Panel captures	Panel missed	Chart captures	Chart missed	Medicare captures	Medicare missed	Panel versus chart	Panel versus Medicare	Chart versus Medicare
	𝑛=830	𝑛=1220	𝑛=984	𝑛=236	𝑛=757	𝑛=463	𝑛=792	𝑛=428
Baseline (NH entry)
Age (mean)	80.3	82.4	82.9	80.6	82.5	82.3	82.2	82.9	∗	∗∗∗
Education (mean)	11.3	10.3	10.3	10.1	10.3	10.3	10.1	10.6
Gender % male	24.8	31.0	30.1	34.7	29.7	33.0	31.4	30.1
Race % nonwhite	12.8	22.1	22.7	19.9	22.2	22.0	23.1	20.0
Currently Married %	19.9	26.7	27.2	24.6	28.4	24.0	27.8	24.8
Katz ADL (mean)	3.1	4.3	4.4	3.5	4.2	4.2	4.3	4.1	∗∗∗	∗∗
Comorbidity (mean)	2.7	2.6	2.6	2.7	2.4	2.9	2.5	2.8
Chairfast %	27.0	30.8	31.5	27.4	27.3	36.5	29.3	33.6	∗∗
Bedfast %	9.3	7.6	5.9	15.2	6.7	9.1	8.0	7.0	∗∗	∗∗∗
DCG/HCC (mean)	14,757.1	13,250.2	12,142.5	17,706.9	11,779.8	15,569.3	13,522.4	12,708.8		∗∗∗	∗∗∗
RUGS CMI (mean)	1.09	1.09	1.09	1.13	1.04	1.20	1.09	1.12	∗		∗∗∗
Medicaid at admission %	17.8	27.4	27.9	25.0	25.9	29.8	27.8	26.6
Medicare qualified stay %	67.0	45.7	43.9	55.9	40.7	55.1	46.6	46.0		∗∗	∗∗∗
MMSE (mean)	24.4	13.7	12.4	22.1	12.3	15.7	13.0	14.9	∗∗∗	∗∗∗	∗
MDSCOGS (mean)	1.5	4.9	5.2	3.4	5.5	3.9	5.4	4.0		∗
NH disposition
NH length of stay (mean)	204.8	375.8	402.4	265.0	398.4	338.5	380.1	367.9	∗∗	∗∗∗	∗
Died first 90 days %	15.3	12.1	9.7	22.0	11.7	12.8	12.4	11.5	∗∗∗	∗∗∗
Discharge home (2 years) %	48.5	18.3	15.6	29.3	17.2	20.1	17.7	19.4	∗∗	∗∗

+Significance of preplanned 𝑡-test comparisons of missed dementia cases across methods (dummy coefficient from regression analyses). ^∗∗∗𝑝<.001, ^∗∗𝑝<.01, ^∗𝑝<.05.