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Health care costs increase by over 90% after compensated cirrhosis diagnosis
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PARIS — All-cause hospitalizations, rate of emergency department visits and inpatient costs increased by more than 90% following compensated cirrhosis diagnosis among patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease or nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, according to a presentation at the International Liver Congress 2018.
“As we all know, NAFLD and NASH are a common cause of compensated cirrhosis in the Western world,” Ali Canbay, MD, from the University of Magdeburg Medical in Germany, said in his presentation. “These patients often develop liver-related complications and can progress to end-stage liver diseases ... which in many cases lead to death.”
To evaluate the outcomes and health care costs following the development of compensated cirrhosis, Canbay and colleagues stratified patients from a German claims database who progressed to end-stage liver disease (ESLD) within 1 year after diagnosis as “CC Progressors” (n = 245) and those who did not develop ESLD as “CC Non-Progressors” (n = 555).
Mean annual all-cause health care costs increased by 93% among the whole cohort after compensated cirrhosis and inpatient costs increased by 214%. Additionally, all-cause hospitalizations increased by 91% and emergency room visits increased by 106.8%. Overall, cumulative all-cause total health care costs for compensated cirrhosis increased by 143% over a 5-year period.
Compared with an all-cause cost increase of 47% and inpatient cost increase of 103% among the CC Non-Progressors, mean annual all-cause health care costs increased by 179% among CC Progressors with an inpatient cost increase of 411% (P < .05).
“Fatty liver disease patients with compensated cirrhosis have a high unmet need in real-world leading to poor health outcomes and high health care costs,” Canbay concluded. “We believe, of course, novel treatment options are needed to improve patient outcomes in this population.”
For more information:
Canbay A, et al. Abstract PS-057. Presented at: International Liver Congress; Apr. 11-15, 2018; Paris, France.
Disclosure: Healio Gastroenterology and Liver Disease could not confirm financial relationships at time of publication.