Using Address Data to Track Household Financial Burden of Disease

Abstract

The financial burden of illness cannot be correctly characterized without accounting for the impacts across healthy and sick members of a household. Currently, we have very few large, nationally representative data resources to facilitate such work. This paper describes ways to move the field forward through a novel application of address data.

Economic Outcomes in Patient-Centered Outcomes Research

“…Unfortunately, the evidence to inform these decisions and improve patient outcomes—and the data and data infrastructure needed to generate it—are generally lacking in most data sources. For example, as articles published in this issue of Medical Care have described, data are needed to understand household economic impacts 7 and family decisions and trade-offs 8 . The data needs for specific populations should also be considered.…”