New and Previous Chronic Inflammatory Disease Diagnoses Increases Treatment Costs

Patients with a newly diagnosed chronic inflammatory disease (psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis [PsA], axial spondyloarthritis [axSpA], or hidradenitis suppurativa [HS]) who had an additional past diagnosis of psoriasis, PsA, axSpA, or HS experienced increased health care resource utilization and costs the year after the new diagnosis, according to a study published online ahead of print in Advances in Therapy.

The claims data analysis included nearly 300,000 patients in the United States with incident psoriasis, PsA, axSpA, or HS. The prevalence of a past chronic inflammatory disease was 3.7% among patients with incident psoriasis, 53% among patients with incident PsA, 2.8% among patients with incident axSpA, and 2.9% among patients with incident HS.

“Among patients with incident psoriasis, axSpA, and HS, the proportion who had a history of additional past chronic inflammatory disease diagnoses was small,” wrote corresponding author Silky Beaty, PharmD, MSPH, of UCB Pharma, Smyrna, Georgia, and study coauthors. “However, around half of patients with incident PsA had a prior diagnosis of psoriasis. The high number of patients with incident PsA and past diagnosis of psoriasis is likely since many patients with psoriasis eventually progress to develop PsA.”

Corticosteroid and opioid use were high the year before and after the additional diagnosis; an analysis of patients with incident axSpA and past PsA, incident axSpA and past HS, and incident HS and past psoriasis showed. Biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) increased after the added diagnosis.

Researchers reported that inflammatory disease-related costs accounted for much of patients’ total all-cause health care costs. Meanwhile, increases in overall health care costs after an additional diagnosis were largely driven by pharmacy costs.

“These findings highlight the need for payers, health technology assessment agencies, clinicians, and other stakeholders to explore the co-management of chronic inflammatory disease,” researchers wrote, “as opposed to treating them as separate entities.”

Reference

Hopson S, Gibbs LR, Syed S, et al. Treatment patterns and healthcare resource utilization among newly diagnosed psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, axial spondyloarthritis, and hidradenitis suppurativa patients with past diagnosis of an inflammatory condition: a retrospective cohort analysis of claims data in the United States. Adv Ther. Published online July 24, 2023. doi:10.1007/s12325-023-02558-2