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Drug nonadherence linked to higher health care costs in young IBD patients
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New researched showed an association between nonadherence to medications for inflammatory bowel disease and increased health care costs in young patients, especially in those whose nonadherence increased over time, according to new research.
These findings highlight the importance of patients taking medications as prescribed to control health care costs, investigators concluded.
“This study has important ramifications for health care reform and how practitioners approach adherence assessment and intervention in routine care,” Kevin A. Hommel, PhD, director of the Center for Health Technology Research at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, said in a press release. “With sustained efforts to reduce nonadherence in chronic conditions, we may see concomitant reduction in health care costs.”
Hommel and colleagues retrospectively evaluated 99 children and young adults with IBD (aged 2 to 21 years) in a 2-year longitudinal study of the relationship between medication nonadherence and health care costs.
After controlling for disease severity, they found that patients who were increasingly nonadherent over time incurred more than three times higher health care costs compared with those who took their medications as directed (mean, $109,866.88 vs. $30,136.44).
“Total health care costs did not differ across disease severity subgroups,” Hommel and colleagues noted.
Additionally, they observed that patients whose adherence improved over time incurred about the same health care costs as those who were consistently adherent, suggesting that efforts to improve patient adherence could lead to significant cost savings. – by Adam Leitenberger
Disclosures: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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