Co-occurring mental illness and health care utilization and expenditures in adults with obesity and chronic physical illness.

This article compares total healthcare expenditures between obese and chronically ill patients with and without mental illness.  The authors find that total expenditures and utilization for those with mental illness are considerably higher than those without mental illness and suggest that future cost-savings efforts focus on establishing the reasons for those observations.   

Shen, C., Sambamoorthi, U., & Rust, G. (2008). Co-occurring mental illness and health care utilization and expenditures in adults with obesity and chronic physical illness. Disease Management, 11(3), 153-60. http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/dis.2007.0012

Authors: Chan Shen, Usha Sambamoorthi, George Rust.