Healthcare costs associated with receipt of effective mental healthcare coverage in individuals with moderate or severe symptoms of anxiety and depression

This study draws on data from participants from Alberta’s Tomorrow Project with moderate or severe symptoms of anxiety and depression during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020) with available medico-administrative and complete data [n = 720]. EMHC was assessed during the eighteen months as of March 1, 2020, and defined as adequate pharmacotherapy (i.e., antidepressant dispensed, with ≥ 80% proportion of days covered and 4 follow-up medical visits) and/or adequate psychotherapy (≥ 8 physician consultations for psychotherapy) depending on the severity of symptoms. Logistic regression analysis was used to study EMHC as a function of study variables. Regressions with augmented inverse probability weighting were used to estimate the total healthcare costs attributable to receipt of EMHC during the first 18-month period of the pandemic, controlling for confounders. Mean adjusted differences with 95% bias-corrected bootstrap confidence intervals (CIs) are presented.