PharmacoEconomics & Outcomes News 590 - 31 Oct 2009

Poor adherence to osteoporosismedications increases costs

Low adherence to osteoporosis treatments cansignificantly increase inpatient hospital stays andmedical costs, according to a study presented at the 31stAnnual Meeting of the American Society for Bone andMineral Research.

To calculate such outcomes, researchers acquiredmedical and pharmacy claims data, from a US healthplan, for 32 573 women with osteoporosis who initiatedtreatment with alendronic acid, risedronic acid,teriparatide, ibandronic acid or raloxifene within a4.5-year period. The mean patient age was 59.4 years.Data collected encompassed 1 year before druginitiation to ≥ 180 days after drug initiation.

Low drug adherence (MPR < 0.5*) was associatedwith 31.2% higher likelihood of inpatient stay per30 days (p < 0.001), and 11.4% higher mean medicalcosts (p = 0.001), than high adherence (MPR ≥ 0.8).Patients demonstrating medium adherence(0.5 ≤ MPR < 0.8) similarly demonstrated a significantlyhigher mean probability of inpatient stays per 30 days(by 20.5%) and higher mean costs (by 8.4%) thanpatients with high adherence.* Medication possession ratio: days with osteoporosis drug/daysobserved

Iqbal S, et al. Association between adherence to osteoporosis medication andinpatient stays and medical services costs. 31st Annual Meeting of the AmericanSociety for Bone and Mineral Research : abstr. A09001753, 11 Sep2009. 803001308

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PharmacoEconomics & Outcomes News 31 Oct 2009 No. 5901173-5503/10/0590-0001/$14.95 Adis © 2010 Springer International Publishing AG. All rights reserved