OBJECTIVES: Growth Hormone Deficiency (GHD) patients are provided with Growth Hormone (GH) by the pharmacy of our regional general 560-bed hospital exclusively since August 2012. Our district population is 157,000 inhabitants and according to EMA, incidence of GHD in Europe is 4 in 10,000 people, higher in boys than in girls. This research aims to evaluate GHD’s incidence for our district, taking gender into account, and to assess pharmacoeconomic and clinical data relevant to GH administration.

METHODS: GH administration data of 2013 to 2016 were used, as extracted by Hospital’s Information System and provided by National Statistical Authority. Parameters of interest were: number of patients, gender, GH total cost and cost per patient; DDDs were also calculated.

RESULTS: GHD incidence for our district was estimated as the average of last 4 years to be 2.8 per 10,000 people, which is lower than European mean. From 2013 to 2015 boys who needed GH were more than girls (for 2013 25 boys and 21 girls and for 2015 20 boys and 18 girls). The number of patients, GH total cost and DDDs are higher in 2014 (49 patients, 222,569 €, 20,065 DDDs, respectively); no statistical significance for linear regression slopes for GH total cost and DDDs was found; cost per patient and DDD per patient are growing while cost per DDD is rather stable for the last 3 years (10.81€/DDD), perhaps due to children’s weight gain with advancing age.

CONCLUSIONS: In our district, GHD incidence per 10,000 people is lower than European mean, with slightly more boy-patients than girl-patients, as reported in literature. A passing to higher cost GH formulations is not confirmed. Further investigation of GHD incidence per 1,000 births is needed, which would contribute to a better understanding of GHD epidemiological characteristics.