Health care costs, resource use higher for patients with immunoglobulin A nephropathy
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Key takeaways:
- Rate of immunoglobulin A nephropathy in the United States was 329 per 1,000,000 persons.
- Patients with high-risk proteinuria had higher health care resource use and costs.
Health care costs and resource use were higher for patients with immunoglobulin A nephropathy who were at high-risk proteinuria and had decline in kidney function, newly published data show.
Researchers led by Edgar V. Lerma, MD, clinical professor of medicine in nephrology at the University of Illinois, conducted a retrospective cohort study to offer current evidence on the epidemiology and potential economic health care burden of immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN) in the United States. The study included 9,984 patients from the Optum's Market Clarity database with at least two IgAN signs, disease and symptom terms, such as “IgA nephropathy” and “Berger's disease,” within 180 days and at least 30 days apart during the study period.
Primary outcomes were IgAN prevalence, health care resource use and costs.
The standardized prevalence of IgAN in the United States was 329 per 1,000,000 persons between 2016 and 2020, according to the results. Patients with high-risk proteinuria had higher health care resource utilization and costs vs. patients with less severe kidney disease.
High-risk proteinuria was also linked to a higher mean per-patient-per-month number of outpatient visits and pharmacy claims ($3,732 vs. $1,457), adding to higher mean total costs. A higher chronic kidney disease stage was associated with higher health care resource use and per-patient-per-month costs, increasing from $2,111 for CKD stage 1 to $10,703 in CKD stage 5.
“Health care resource utilization and costs were higher for IgAN patients with high-risk proteinuria and worsening kidney function,” they wrote. “Treatments which reduce proteinuria and slow CKD disease progression may reduce the economic burden.”
Collapse
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts