New Findings from National Taiwan University in the Area of Osteoporosis Described (Impact of the Requirement of Bone Mineral Density Evidence On Utilization of Anti-osteoporosis Medications, Clinical Outcome and Medical Expenditures of Patient …): Musculoskeletal Diseases and Conditions – Osteoporosis

2021 DEC 14 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health & Medicine Business Daily -- Current study results on Musculoskeletal Diseases and Conditions - Osteoporosis have been published. According to news reporting originating from Taipei, Taiwan, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Since 2011, Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) issued a regulation on the reimbursement to anti-osteoporosis medications (AOMs). This study aimed to evaluate the impact of this regulation in reimbursement on the utilization of AOMs, clinical outcomes and associated medical expenditures of patients with incident hip fractures.”

Financial supporters for this research include Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan, National Taiwan University Hospital Yun-Lin Branch, XinChen Medical Research Foundation, Taiwan.

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from National Taiwan University, “By using the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD), patients with incident hip fracture from 2006 to 2015 were identified as our study cohort. Patients younger than 50 years old or prescribed with AOMs within one year prior to incident fracture were excluded. Outcomes of interest were quarterly estimates of the proportion of patients who received bone mineral density (BMD) examination, who were prescribed AOMs, as well as who encountered subsequent osteoporotic fracture-related visits and associated medical expenditures. Particularly, age-and gender-specific estimates were reported. An interrupted time series study design with segmented regression model was used to quantitatively explore the impact of the changes of the reimbursement criteria on the level (immediate) and trend (long-term) changes of these outcomes. Our study enrolled 118 493 patients with incident hip fracture with those patients aged older than 80 years old accounting for the largest proportion. A significantly decreased trend of AOMs prescription rates was observed immediately post regulation except for female aged between 65 and 80, while the long-term pattern showed no significant difference. However, the percentage of patients encountered subsequent osteoporotic fracture-related visit was not statistically different between pre-and post-regulation periods. Noteworthy, the policy regulation was associated with an increasing trend of osteoporotic fracture associated medical expenditures, especially for patients older than 80 years old. The regulation on the reimbursement for AOMs decreased the prescribing rate of AOMs immediately although the effect did not sustain thereafter.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “However, higher subsequent osteoporotic fracture-related medical expenditures were introduced, especially among those very old population.”

For more information on this research see: Impact of the Requirement of Bone Mineral Density Evidence On Utilization of Anti-osteoporosis Medications, Clinical Outcome and Medical Expenditures of Patient With Hip Fracture In Taiwan. International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 2020. International Journal of Health Policy and Management can be contacted at: Kerman Univ Medical Sciences, Jahad Blvd, Kerman, 7619813159, Iran.

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Fei-Yuan Hsiao, National Taiwan University, School of Pharmacy, College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan. Additional authors for this research include Chen-Yu Wang, Shen Li-Jiuan, Shau-Huai Fu, Chih-Chien Hung, Rong -Sen Yang, Jou-Wei Lin and Ho -Min Chen.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.34172/ijhpm.2020.169. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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