Rheumatology

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Impact of noncompliance with urate-lowering drug on serum urate and gout-related healthcare costs: Administrative claims analysis
Current Medical Research and Opinion, 06/23/09

Halpern R et al. - Analysis revealed an important associations between allopurinol compliance, serum urate (sUA), and gout-related costs. However, these results should be interpreted carefully in the light of study limitations.

• Study to determine:
  • Association between allopurinol compliance and sUA level, and
  • Examine the association between sUA and gout-related healthcare costs in a large managed care population
• A retrospective administrative claims analysis examined subjects with gout between Jan 2002 – March 2004
• Each subject was observed during 1-yr pre-index and 1-yr post-index periods

• 18243 pts; mean age: 53.9 yrs
• 55% of subjects used allopurinol; 8.1% subjects with a post-allopurinol sUA and 13.4% with a baseline sUA result
• Among all subjects with a post-allopurinol sUA, 45.6% were compliant
• 49.3% to 56.8% of compliant subjects had an sUA<6.0mg/dL vs 22.5–27.8% of non-compliant subjects, depending on the post-allopurinol time period
• GLM results showed gout-related costs associated with baseline sUA≥6.0 and<9.0mg/dL were 58% higher than were costs for sUA<6.0mg/dL
• No difference in gout-related costs between baseline sUA<6.0mg/dL and ≥9.0mg/dL

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