218
Views
2
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Immunology

Prescribing patterns and healthcare costs of gout

ORCID Icon, ORCID Icon, , , &
Pages 1051-1058 | Received 25 May 2018, Accepted 15 Nov 2018, Published online: 03 Jan 2019
 

Abstract

Objective/methods: The Longitudinal Health Insurance Database (LHID) 2010 was used to identify gout cases and their number of gout flares.

Results: Out of 21,376 gout patients, a total of 3561 (16.7%) had frequent gout flares (≥3 gout flares/year). Average all-cause healthcare utilization (35.9 visits vs. 30.7 visits; p < .001) and gout-related utilization (22.7 visits vs. 15.6 visits; p < .001) were higher in frequent gout flare patients than in those with infrequent gout flares. The median gout-related cost (USD $369 vs. $285; p < .001), but not all-cause costs (p = .25), were higher in frequent gout flare patients compared to the infrequent group. Over 55.8% of the flares were treated with colchicine + NSAIDs.

Conclusions: In conclusion, patients with frequent gout flares had higher healthcare utilization and gout-related healthcare costs. Colchicine + NSAIDs are commonly used therapy for gout flare.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all authors for the substantial contributions to this paper. Yi-Yun Lee and Li-Na Kuo contributed equally to this work.

Transparency

Declaration of funding

This study was funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology, R.O.C (MOST 105-2314-B-038-005) and the Wan Fang Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan (104TMU-WFH-09).

Declaration of financial/other relationships

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Log in via your institution

Log in to Taylor & Francis Online

PDF download + Online access

  • 48 hours access to article PDF & online version
  • Article PDF can be downloaded
  • Article PDF can be printed
USD 65.00 Add to cart

Issue Purchase

  • 30 days online access to complete issue
  • Article PDFs can be downloaded
  • Article PDFs can be printed
USD 681.00 Add to cart

* Local tax will be added as applicable

Related Research

People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.

Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.

Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.