OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this research was to estimate primary and secondary healthcare resource use and associated costs in people with hepatic encephalopathy (HE) using data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) linked to Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES).

METHODS

The study used primary care data from the CPRD and linked inpatient data from the HES for England. Linkage-eligible patients with a recorded diagnosis indicative of cirrhosis between 1998 and 2012, a diagnosis of HE, no prescription for rifaximin-α, and ≥1 day’s follow-up were selected. Patients’ primary care consultations were assigned a cost per consultation as listed in the Unit Costs of Health and Social Care 2012. Prescriptions were assigned a net ingredient cost per prescription from the Prescription Cost Analysis for England 2012. Inpatient admissions were assigned a healthcare resource group (HRG) and linked to the 2012/13 National Health Service National Tariff.

RESULTS

276 patients were identified (61% male; median age 57.5 years) in the data source. Patients received 68.7 prescriptions, 14.8 primary care contacts and 3.0 inpatient admissions per person-year (ppy), with corresponding costs of £935, £536 and £8,029 ppy, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

Patients with HE were frequent users of primary and secondary healthcare resources, incurring substantial financial costs, the greatest proportion of which were attributable to inpatient care. To our knowledge, this study is the first to use detailed costing methods to provide primary and secondary healthcare costs in people with HE in England.