METHODS

We define chronic conditions as those conditions that last a year or more and require ongoing medical attention and/or limit activities of daily living. 1 To determine which specific conditions met our definition, we convened two physician panels to review all medical conditions represented by the International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision (ICD-9) codes. 1 We applied the resulting classifications to data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), a survey sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHQR).

The Household Component of the 1998 MEPS is a nationally representative sample of the non-institutional US population. Two groups of respondents (24,072 people total) were interviewed three times each during the 1998 survey period. The MEPS Household Component provides information on health status, health services utilization, and health care spending. Health care spending is calculated by AHRQ using respondents’ medical claims or other records. 2 This is a survey of people living in the community, and therefore does not provide information on people residing in institutions such as nursing homes. This is an important point. As a result, our data analysis understates the number of people with chronic conditions as well as health care spending on their