Healthcare utilization associated with dyspepsia in patients with arthritis

Objective: To compare gastrointestinal-related healthcare resource utilizat ion in arthritis patients with and without dyspepsia. Study Design: A historical cohort study based on a claims database. Patients and Methods: Data were obtained from the MarketScan database. Adul t patients with a diagnosis of arthritis (International Classification of D iseases, 9th Revision [ICD-9] codes 714.0-715.9) during 1992 and 1993 were included; individuals with a diagnosis of dyspepsia within the first 3 mont hs of their arthritis diagnosis were considered study case patients. Each c ase patient was matched with 4 nondyspeptic arthritis patients based on age , gender, employment status, and type of insurance plan, Healthcare resourc e utilization in terms of outpatient services and inpatient admissions duri ng the first year after the initial arthritis diagnosis was compared betwee n the case and control groups, Results: A total of 503 case and 2146 control patients were identified. The re were no significant differences in demographic characteristics between t he 2 groups. Dyspeptic patients (cases) had a significantly higher rate of claims for endoscopic procedures (odds ratio [OR] = 10.0, P<.01) than nondy speptic patients (controls), Patients with dyspepsia also had a significant ly higher claim rate of gastrointestinal ulcer or bleeding (OR = 4.2, P<.01 ) and were more likely to be hospitalized at least once (OR = 1.4, P<.01), Dyspeptic patients had overall higher frequencies of use of outpatient serv ices (53.9 vs 32.5 claims per patient, P<.001) and higher costs for both in patient admission and outpatient services than nondyspeptic patients. Conclusion: Dyspeptic arthritis patients have higher healthcare resource ut ilization and associated costs than nondyspeptic arthritis patients.