scholarly journals Gender differences among Swedish COPD patients: results from the ARCTIC, a real-world retrospective cohort study

Author(s):  
Karin Lisspers ◽  
Kjell Larsson ◽  
Christer Janson ◽  
Björn Ställberg ◽  
Ioanna Tsiligianni ◽  
...  

AbstractThe present study aimed to generate real-world evidence regarding gender differences among chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients, especially as regards the diagnosis and outcomes in order to identify areas for improvement and management and optimize the associated healthcare resource allocation. ARCTIC is a large, real-world, retrospective cohort study conducted in Swedish COPD patients and a matched reference population from 52 primary care centers in 2000–2014. The incidence of COPD, prevalence of asthma and other comorbidities, risk of exacerbations, mortality rate, COPD drug prescriptions, and healthcare resource utilization were analyzed. In total, 17,479 patients with COPD were included in the study. During the study period, COPD was more frequent among women (53.8%) and women with COPD experienced more exacerbations vs. men (6.66 vs. 4.66). However, the overall mortality rate was higher in men compared with women (45% vs. 38%), but no difference for mortality due to COPD was seen between genders over the study period. Women seemed to have a greater susceptibility to asthma, fractures, osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, rhinitis, depression, and anxiety, but appeared less likely to have diabetes, kidney diseases, and cardiovascular diseases. Furthermore, women had a greater risk of COPD-related hospitalization and were likely to receive a significantly higher number of COPD drug prescriptions compared with men. These results support the need to reduce disease burden among women with COPD and highlight the role of healthcare professionals in primary care who should consider all these parameters in order to properly diagnose and treat women with COPD.

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hao Sen Andrew Fang ◽  
Qiao Gao ◽  
Mong Li Lee ◽  
Wynne Hsu ◽  
Ngiap Chuan Tan

Abstract Background Clinical trials have demonstrated that either initiating or up-titrating a statin dose substantially reduce Low-Density Lipoprotein-Cholesterol (LDL-C) levels. However, statin adherence in actual practice tends to be suboptimal, leading to diminished effectiveness. This study aims to use real-world data to determine the effect on LDL-C levels and LDL-C goal attainment rates, when selected statins are titrated in Asian patients. Methods A retrospective cohort study over a 5-year period, from April 2014 to March 2019 was conducted on a cohort of multi-ethnic adult Asian patients with clinical diagnosis of Dyslipidaemia in a primary care clinic in Singapore. The statins were classified into low-intensity (LI), moderate-intensity (MI) and high-intensity (HI) groups according to the 2018 American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) Blood Cholesterol Guidelines. Patients were grouped into “No statin”, “Non-titrators” and “Titrators” cohorts based on prescribing patterns. For the “Titrators” cohort, the mean percentage change in LDL-C and absolute change in LDL-C goal attainment rates were computed for each permutation of statin intensity titration. Results Among the cohort of 11,499 patients, with a total of 266,762 visits, there were 1962 pairs of LDL-C values associated with a statin titration. Initiation of LI, MI and HI statin resulted in a lowering of LDL-C by 21.6% (95%CI = 18.9–24.3%), 28.9% (95%CI = 25.0–32.7%) and 25.2% (95%CI = 12.8–37.7%) respectively. These were comparatively lower than results from clinical trials (30 to 63%). The change of LDL-C levels due to up-titration, down-titration, and discontinuation were − 12.4% to − 28.9%, + 13.2% to + 24.6%, and + 18.1% to + 32.1% respectively. The improvement in LDL-C goal attainment ranged from 26.5% to 47.1% when statin intensity was up-titrated. Conclusion In this study based on real-world data of Asian patients in primary care, it was shown that although statin titration substantially affected LDL-C levels and LDL-C goal attainment rates, the magnitude was lower than results reported from clinical trials. These results should be taken into consideration and provide further insight to clinicians when making statin adjustment recommendations in order to achieve LDL-C targets in clinical practice, particularly for Asian populations.


Author(s):  
Björn Ställberg ◽  
Christer Janson ◽  
Kjell Larsson ◽  
Gunnar Johansson ◽  
Konstantinos Kostikas ◽  
...  

BMJ Open ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (9) ◽  
pp. e015806 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kuang-Ming Liao ◽  
Chung-Yu Chen

ObjectivesAortic aneurysm (AA) is a leading cause of death worldwide. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a risk factor for AA, and the prognoses of COPD patients with AA who underwent/did not undergo an operation warrant investigation.DesignA nationwide retrospective cohort study.SettingWe included patients with AA older than 18 years who received their first AA diagnosis between 2005 and 2011 in Taiwan.ParticipantsThis study enrolled 3263 COPD patients with AA before propensity score matching and 2127 COPD patients with AA after propensity score matching.Outcome measuresThe main outcomes were all-cause mortality and rehospitalisation for AA or operation. The outcomes of COPD patients with AA and COPD patients without AA during an 8-year follow-up period were examined using Cox proportional hazards models.ResultsIn the AA population, patients with COPD showed higher rates of mortality and rehospitalisation than patients without COPD with adjusted HRs of 1.12 (95% CI 1.03 to 1.22) and 1.11 (95% CI 1.01 to 1.23), respectively, after propensity score matching. Analysis of the patients who underwent an operation revealed that the rates of mortality of COPD and non-COPD patients were not significantly different. In contrast, among the patients who did not receive an operation, patients with COPD showed a higher mortality rate than patients without COPD with an adjusted HR of 1.11 (95% CI 1.0 to 1.22).ConclusionsThe outcomes of COPD patients with AA undergoing an operation were improved, but the mortality rate of non-COPD patients with AA remained high. An effective treatment to reduce mortality in this group warrants further investigation.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther Hernandez Castilla ◽  
Lucia Vallejo Serrano ◽  
Monica Saenz Ausejo ◽  
Beatriz Pax Sanchez ◽  
Katharina Ramrath ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 153 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-58
Author(s):  
Arden R. Barry ◽  
Chantal E. Chris

Background: This study sought to characterize the real-world treatment of chronic noncancer pain (CNCP) in patients on opioid therapy in primary care. Methods: A retrospective cohort study from 2014-18 was conducted at a multidisciplinary primary care clinic in Chilliwack, British Columbia. Included were adults on daily opioid therapy for CNCP. Patients receiving palliative care or ≤1 visit were excluded. Outcomes of interest included use of opioid/nonopioid pharmacotherapy, number/frequency of visits and proportion of patients able to reduce/discontinue opioid therapy. Results: Seventy patients (mean age 53 years, 53% male, 51% back pain) were included. Median follow-up was 6 visits over 12 months. Sixty-two patients (89%) reduced their opioid dose, 6 patients had no change and 2 patients required a dose increase. Mean opioid dose was reduced from 183 to 70 mg morphine equivalents daily. Twenty-four patients (34%) discontinued opioid therapy, 6 patients (9%) transitioned to opioid agonist therapy and 6 patients (9%) breached their opioid treatment agreement. Nonopioid pharmacotherapy included nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (64%), gabapentinoids (63%), tricyclic antidepressants (56%) and nabilone (51%). Discussion: Over half of patients were no longer on opioid therapy by the end of the study. Most patients had a disorder (e.g., back pain) for which opioids are generally not recommended. Overall mean opioid dose was reduced from baseline by approximately 60% over 1 year. Lack of access to specialized pain treatments may have accounted for high nonopioid pharmacotherapy usage. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that treatment of CNCP and opioid tapering can successfully be achieved in a primary care setting. Can Pharm J (Ott) 2020;153:xx-xx.


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