O estudo “Health care resource utilization and costs in opioid-treated patients with and without constipation in Brazil” conduzido pela equipe ANOVA em conjunto com a AxisMed e a Pfizer acaba de ser aceito para o número especial do periódico Value in Health para a América Latina (Value in Health Special Issue: Pharmacoeconomics & Outcomes Research in Latin America). A ViH é o periódico oficial da ISPOR (International Society For Pharmacoeconomics And Outcomes Research) e o objetivo desse número especial é promover a ciência da farmacoeconomia e pesquisa de desfechos na América Latina e ainda compartilhar os resultados de pesquisa de desfechos de países da região.
Health care resource utilization and costs in opioid-treated patients with and without constipation in Brazil
Maira L.S. Takemoto, RN, MSc, R.A. Fernandes, MD, MSc, G.R. Almeida, PharmD, R.D.C. Monteiro, PharmD, M. Colombini-Neto, MD, MSc, A. Bertola-Neto, BBA
Objective: To estimate the prevalence of constipation concomitant to opioid treatment and related resource utilization and costs from the private payer perspective.
Methods: In this retrospective database analysis, patients on opioid therapy were identified from a longitudinal insurance claims database. An algorithm was used to identify patients on opioid therapy with coincident constipation-related claims according to ICD-10 codes, targeted procedures and opioid use criteria. Resource utilization and costs were determined for these individuals and compared with patients on opioid therapy without constipation, without opioid therapy with constipation and without both conditions. Results were compared using ANOVA with a significance level of 0.05.
Results: A total of 23,313 patients were classified as opioid treated patients (2.2%) and 6,678 of them had events related to constipation (29.0%). Compared with opioid treated patients without constipation, incremental mean total costs per month per patient were 261.18 BRL (p<0.001). The average cost per month for opioid-related constipation patients was 787.84 BRL, significantly higher than other patients (p<0.001 for all comparisons). Among cancer patients, 24.4% was receiving opioids and 27.0% of those had constipation-related claims. As expected, the opioid therapy prevalence was significantly higher when compared to all patients (2.2% vs. 24.4%, p<0.001). Cancer patients had, in average, higher costs than did non-cancer patients in all four subgroups.
Conclusions: Patients with constipation coincident with opioid treatment exhibited a significantly higher economic burden than did patients without the condition. These results indicate that reducing opioid-induced constipation could lead to potential cost savings for the health care system.
Tags: ANOVA, consultoria, custo da doença, Economia da Saúde, farmacoeconomia, Health Economics, Ispor, Outcomes Research, pesquisa de desfecho, Publicações