Yonsei University Reports Findings in Life Science Research (Assessing the effects of National Health Insurance reimbursement policy revisions for anti-osteoporotic drugs in Korean women aged 50 or older)

2021 JAN 13 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health & Medicine Business Daily -- Researchers detail new data in Life Science Research. According to news reporting out of Seoul, South Korea, by NewsRx editors, research stated, “The Korean National Health Insurance revised its reimbursement criteria to expand coverage for anti-osteoporotic drug treatments in 2011 (expanding diagnostic criteria and the coverage period for anti-osteoporotic therapy) and 2015 (including osteoporotic fracture patients regardless of bone mineral density). We examined whether the two revisions contributed to an increase in the prescription rates of anti-osteoporotic drugs in Korea.”

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Yonsei University, “We used the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service-National Patient Sample data from 2010 through 2016. A segmented regression analysis of interrupted time series was performed to assess changes in the monthly prescription rates of anti-osteoporotic drugs among women aged 50 or older, defined as the proportion of elderly women prescribed with anti-osteoporotic drugs. Both the levels (i.e., abrupt jump or drop) and the trends (i.e., slope) of the prescription rates of anti-osteoporotic drugs in the general population, osteoporotic patients, and osteoporotic fracture patients showed no significant changes after the first revision. However, there was a significant increase in the trends in the general population (b=0.0166, p=0.0173) and in osteoporotic patients (b=0.1128, p=0.0157) after the second revision. Women aged 65 to 79 years were the most significantly increased group in terms of the treatment proportion after the second revision because the trend was significant after the second revision in all three study populations (b=0.0300, 0.1212, 0.1392, respectively; p<0.05).”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Although the two revisions expanded reimbursement coverage, only the second revision on reimbursing based on osteoporotic fracture regardless of bone mineral density was associated with increasing the proportion of post-menopausal women being treated with anti-osteoporotic drugs.”

For more information on this research see: Assessing the effects of National Health Insurance reimbursement policy revisions for anti-osteoporotic drugs in Korean women aged 50 or older. Plos One, 2020;15(12). (Public Library of Science - www.plos.org; Plos One - www.plosone.org)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Seong Hwan Moon, Dept. of Orthopedic Surgery, College of Medicine, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea. Additional authors for this research include Ja Seo Koo, Hankil Lee, Sohee Park, Yun Mi Yu and Hye-Young Kang.

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The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0244759. 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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