1-Year Hospitalization for US Patients With PAH Found To Remain at Acceptable Levels

Using US claims-based predictive models, a team of researchers demonstrated that 1-year hospitalization rates among patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) remains at acceptable levels, according to a study published in Advances in Therapy. 

PAH is frequently associated with hospitalizations, especially as the disease progresses. Studies indicate that over 50% of patients newly diagnosed with PAH are likely to be hospitalized over a 3-year period due to PAH-related complications. 

Hospitalizations also impose a tremendous financial burden on the healthcare system; each typically costs tens of thousands of dollars, according to US claims-based analyses. To better understand the type of patients with PAH at the highest risk of hospitalization, the authors of the study developed a statistical model using data available from administrative healthcare claims to predict hospitalization risk within 1 year of treatment initiation. 

The research team collected data from the MarketScan Commercial and Medicare Supplemental databases. They analyzed the data of adult patients who were newly started on at least 1 PAH medication between January 1, 2009 and January 31, 2019 (n=3872). Patients who had a prior claim for any PAH-related medications were excluded. 

Read more about PAH etiology 

Recruited patients were followed up with until the earliest hospitalization event, health plan disenrollment, or the end of the study period. The researchers constructed survival models to assess associations between time to hospitalization (PAH-related as well as all-cause) and possible risk factors. 

This study revealed that 38.8% of patients had an all-cause hospitalization and 24.5% had a PAH-related hospitalization within the first year of PAH treatment initiation. The research team also uncovered several risk factors associated with hospitalization, such as frailty, hemoptysis, fatigue, and a previous history of PAH-related hospitalization. 

“The predictive models constructed from patients’ baseline characteristics and healthcare resource utilization and costs showed acceptable performance for predicting patients with PAH at high risk for all-cause and PAH-related hospitalization,” the authors concluded. 

Reference

Zhang C, Tsang Y, He J, Panjabi S. Predicting risk of 1-year hospitalization among patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension. Published online April 6, 2023. doi:10.1007/s12325-023-02501-5