Real-world Comorbidity Burden, Health Care Utilization, and Costs of Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis Patients With Advanced Liver Diseases
Recommended Citation
Wong RJ, Kachru N, Martinez DJ, Moynihan M, Ozbay AB, and Gordon SC. Real-world Comorbidity Burden, Health Care Utilization, and Costs of Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis Patients With Advanced Liver Diseases. J Clin Gastroenterol 2020.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-18-2020
Publication Title
Journal of clinical gastroenterology
Abstract
GOALS: This study evaluates the real-world comorbidity burden, health care resource utilization (HRU), and costs among nonalcoholic fatty liver disease/nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NAFLD/NASH) patients with advanced liver diseases [compensated cirrhosis (CC), decompensated cirrhosis (DCC), liver transplantation (LT), hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)].
BACKGROUND: NAFLD/NASH is a leading cause of liver diseases.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Adult NAFLD/NASH patients were identified retrospectively from MarketScan Commercial claims (2006-2016). Following initial NAFLD/NASH diagnosis, advanced liver diseases were identified using the first diagnosis as their index date. Mean annual all-cause HRU and costs (2016 USD) were reported. Adjusted costs were estimated through generalized linear models. Cumulative costs were illustrated for patient subsets with variable follow-up for each stage.RESULTS: Within the database, 485,774 NAFLD/NASH patients met eligibility criteria. Of these, 93.4% (453,564) were NAFLD/NASH patients without advanced liver diseases, 1.6% (7665) with CC, 3.3% (15,833) with DCC, 0.1% (696) with LT, and 0.1% (428) with HCC. Comorbidity burden was high and increased as patients progressed through liver disease severity stages. Compared with NAFLD/NASH without advanced liver diseases (adjusted costs: $23,860), the annual cost of CC, DCC, LT, and HCC were 1.22, 5.64, 8.27, and 4.09 times higher [adjusted costs: $29,078, $134,448, $197,392, and $97,563 (P<0.0001)]. Inpatient admissions significantly drove increasing HRU.
CONCLUSION: Study findings suggest the need for early identification and effective management of NAFLD/NASH patients to minimize comorbidity burden, HRU, and costs in the privately insured US population.
PubMed ID
32815873
ePublication
ePub ahead of print
