Figures & data
Figure 1. Patient identification flow chart. AS, abdominal symptoms; CC, chronic constipation. †739,832 patients did not qualify as potential CC patients or matched controls based on the study criteria. *Exclusion criteria: Patients with ≥1 medical claim for gastrointestinal malignancy, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, celiac disease, vascular insufficiency of intestine, intestinal malabsorption, diverticulitis, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, diabetic neuropathy, or pancreatitis; Patients with ≥1 pharmacy claim for alosetron; Patients with ≥2 pharmacy claims for diphenoxylate hydrochloride/atropine sulfate on different dates during the study period; Patients with ≥2 medical claims for diarrhea occurring at least 30 days apart during the study period or with ≥1 medical claim for diarrhea plus ≥1 pharmacy claim for anti-diarrheal prescription occurring at least 30 days apart during the study period; Patients with ≥2 medical claims for gastritis, gastroenteritis, duodenitis, or uterine fibroids occurring at least 30 days apart during the study period; Patients with ≥120 days-supply of opioids over 6 consecutive monthsCitation14 during the study period.
Table 1. Demographica and clinical characteristics of CC patients and corresponding matched controls.
Figure 2. Mean annual medical and prescription costs among (a) all CC patients, and (b) CC patients with and without abdominal symptoms (in 2010 USD). AS, abdominal symptoms; CC, chronic constipation; GI, gastrointestinal. Note: Symptom-related costs included costs related to constipation, abdominal pain, or bloating for CC patients with abdominal symptoms and costs related to constipation alone for CC patients without abdominal symptoms. *Other outpatient services mainly included diagnostic tests, outpatient procedures, laboratory tests, radiology services, or non-pharmaceutical therapies.
Figure 3. Unadjusted and adjusted mean medical and prescription costs (in 2010 US dollars) among (a) all CC patients and matched controls, and (b) CC patients with and without abdominal symptoms and matched controls. AS, abdominal symptoms; CC, chronic constipation. *Significant at p < 0.01 from non-parametric bootstrap estimation with t-tests, with 3000 replicates generated by randomly drawing samples from the total population clustered by the matched identifier.
