Objective: Compare the marginal healthcare resource utilisation (HRU) and costs between US patients with Huntington’s disease (HD) and non-HD controls.

Background: HD is a genetic, neurodegenerative disorder typically diagnosed between the ages of 30 and 50 years. HD is associated with a high burden of disease, reduced quality of life and high healthcare costs.

Method: Patient data from the Truven MarketScan Commercial and Medicare Supplemental Databases were assessed. Adult patients with ≥1 HD claim (International Classification of Diseases-9/10-CM: 333.4, G10) between 1/1/2010 to 31/12/2017 and continuous enrolment for ≥12 months before and ≥3 months after the first HD claim (index date) were included. Non-HD controls (i.e. patients without an HD diagnosis during the study period) were exact matched with patients in the HD cohort by post-index follow-up time and propensity score matched at a ratio of 4:1 by: age, sex, HRU (number of outpatient, inpatient, and ER visits), costs (inpatient, outpatient, and pharmacy) during baseline and Charlson Comorbidity Index score at baseline. Patients were categorised into early, middle and late stages. HRU and costs per-member-per-month post-index were evaluated.

Results: We identified 2,473 patients with HD and 9,522 non-HD controls. Mean age (standard deviation) was similar between the HD and non-HD cohorts (53.6 [16.3] vs 54.1 [16.8] years, respectively), as was the proportion of female patients (56.2% vs 56.7%, respectively). Mean follow-up time was 27.1 months and 26.8 months, respectively. Patients with HD had significantly higher HRU (mean HRU/member/month) for outpatient (2.13 vs 1.23), inpatient (0.19 vs 0.06) and ER (0.08 vs 0.04) visits compared with non-HD controls, respectively; all p<0.0001. HRU for these services was higher in the HD cohort versus non-HD cohort at each disease stage; all p<0.0001. Median total healthcare costs were higher in the HD cohort compared with the non-HD control cohort ($875.68 vs $316.10, respectively [p<0.0001]). Total median costs in the HD cohort also increased incrementally compared with the non-HD cohort in early ($434.44 vs $181.31), middle ($984.11 vs $310.56) and late ($1,843.32 vs $413.68) stages, respectively; all p<0.0001.

Conclusion: US patients with HD have significant HRU and cost burden. HRU and costs were higher in patients with HD compared with non-HD controls and increased at each stage of HD.

« Back to MDS Virtual Congress 2020

MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/healthcare-resource-utilisation-and-costs-among-patients-with-versus-without-huntingtons-disease-in-the-us-population/