OBJECTIVES:

To study the epidemiology of ITP and resource utilisation, related costs, hospital medication and survival associated with the treatment of non-splenectomised adult ITP patients in Finland.

METHODS:

Real World Data of adult patients diagnosed with ITP from Auria Biobank during 2004-2013 was collected. Medication data including hospital prescriptions (IV & PO) was available from 2010 forward. Patients were distributed to Control (CG) and no-Control (n-CG) -groups according to median platelet count after diagnosis: 0-50 x 10/L (n-CG) and >50 x 10/L (CG). Resource use was valued in 2016 prices.

RESULTS:

A total of 230 patients (52.8% women) with ITP diagnosis were identified, with an average of 23 new patients per year. 40.2% of patients were classified as chronic with a disease duration of > 12 months. 138 patients met the inclusion criteria (e.g. non-splenectomised, ≥18 years) for the survival, resource use and cost analysis, 119 (86.2%) were categorised as Control. The most common concurrent ICD-10 diagnosis was essential hypertension with 31.6% in n-CG and 34.5% in CG. The total average follow-up (years) and patient years, were 4.00 and 476.00 in CG and 4.08 and 77.52 in n-CG. Overall survival was comparable between groups (Log rank test p=0.342). The total average health care costs (without medications) per patient were €33,042 and €50,284 and per patient year €8,101 and €12,571, nCG and CG, respectively. Of the medication data population (n=53) 88.7 % were categorised as Control. The most prescribed (hospital) medication in both groups was methylprednisolone with 100% and 40.4% of patients in nCG and CG, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS:

Non-splenectomised adult ITP patients with elevated platelet levels are associated with higher health care costs mainly due to the higher average number of hospital days. Altogether, pharmacological treatment is more common in patients with a platelet count ≤ 50 × 109/L.