Ps-c19-8: a comparison of the medication cost and incidence rate of cardiovascular events between intensive and standard antihypertensive pharmacotherapies in japan

Objective: Hypertension is a major health challenge, imposing an enormous economic burden as well as health burden worldwide. In Japan, the economic burden of hypertension and related diseases is estimated to be JPY1.7 trillion (USD 13 billion) per year, around 4% of total healthcare expenditures. This study aimed to compare treatment outcomes and costs between intensive and standard pharmacotherapies, focusing on the types of antihypertensive drugs and prescribing patterns. Design and method: We performed a retrospective cohort study using electronic medical record data obtained from 34 healthcare facilities in Japan. The incidence of cardiovascular events captured via claims data was set to be the outcome measure. Multivariable mixed effects Cox-proportional hazards model was applied to compare the costs and the outcomes from intensive pharmacotherapy arm (i.e., short prescribing interval/expensive drugs) and standard one (i.e., long prescribing interval/low-cost drugs). Results: During 6,013 person-years of follow-up, 74 events were observed. While age at the beginning of treatment had significant impact on the incidence of cardiovascular events [Hazard Ratio, 1.05 (95%CI 1.02 - 1.07); p < 0.001], no associations with cardiovascular events were found for mechanism of drug action (CCB) [1.37, (95%CI 0.839 - 2.24); p = 0.21] and for short prescribing interval (less than 30 days) [1.17 (95%CI 0.695 - 1.98); p = 0.55]. The mean medication costs per day per patient of CCB and ARB were JPY 28.9 and JPY 51.8, respectively. Conclusions: No significant impacts on treatment outcomes were observed for drug type and prescribing interval, although the medication costs of intensive pharmacotherapy arm were more expensive than standard arm.