Table 1.

Descriptive Statistics for Characteristics among Veterans Age 65 and Older Who Used Veteran Health Administration (VHA) by VHA or Combined VHA and Medicare Reported Dementia in FY 2013

	VHA Data Alone*		Combined VHA and Medicare Data†
	Dementia Diagnosis (N = 92,970)	No Dementia Diagnosis (N = 1,841,787)	Dementia Diagnosis (N = 142,951)	No Dementia Diagnosis (N = 1,791,806)
Prevalence of dementia (%)	4.8%	–	7.4%	–
Average costs (mean/SD)
VHA	$23,305 (31,318)	$8,083 (16,440)	$18,025 (28,277)	$8,080 (16,402)
Medicare	–	–	$23,539 (27,213)	$9,535 (17,610)
Combined VHA and Medicare	–	–	$39,230 (37,740)	$14,673 (22,719)
Health care services (%)
Any supportive services	19.7	1.8	15.3	1.7
Any acute inpatient admissions	31.7	15.0	33.4	14.4
Any long‐term institutionalization	12.0	1.1	12.9	0.7
Any non‐VHA/non‐Medicare paid NH care	9.2	1.2	11.4	0.8
Any end of life services among decedents	61.0	47.4	57.5	46.3
Socio‐demographic (Column %)
Demographics
65–74	19.8	55.9	17.8	57.1
75–84	40.5	30.0	40.3	29.8
85+	39.7	14.1	41.9	13.2
Male	97.6	98.2	97.7	98.3
White	75.6	75.6	75.3	75.6
Married	60.4	64.8	61.2	64.9
Rurality of residence
Highly urban	45.8	39.9	45.0	39.8
Urban	16.8	16.6	17.5	16.5
Rural	36.1	41.7	36.3	41.8
Highly Rural	1.3	1.9	1.3	1.9
Health system
Medicaid	13.4	5.1	14.9	4.8
Any Medicare costs	82.6	67.0	88.7	66.1
% total costs paid by Medicare	37.2	35.7	51.9	34.5
Risk score
JFI (%)
0–2	5.1	33.1	4.1	33.9
3–5	34.6	48.1	29.9	48.8
6–8	42.8	16.0	44.5	15.1
9+	17.5	2.3	21.5	1.6
Died (%)	13.3	3.4	15.9	3.0

The study cohort is veterans age 65 and older who used VHA and were enrolled in Medicare but not Medicare Advantage in FY 2013.

*Under “VHA Data Alone” column dementia, risk scores and comorbidities were computed using VHA data alone.

†Under “Combined VHA and Medicare Data” columns dementia, risk scores and comorbidities were computed using VHA and Medicare data.

JFI, JEN Frailty Index; NH, nursing home.