Chronic hepatitis B monitoring and treatment patterns in five European countries with different access and reimbursement policies.

BACKGROUND: In Europe, health-care policies are determined at a national level and differ between countries. This analysis from a prospective, longitudinal, non-interventional study aimed to describe patterns in the clinical monitoring and treatment of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) in five European countries. METHODS: Country-specific cohorts of adult patients with compensated CHB managed in clinics in Germany, France, Poland, Romania and Turkey were followed for up to 2 years between March 2008 and December 2010. RESULTS: A total of 1,267 patients were included. Baseline age and gender distribution were similar across countries for patients who were treated (n=567) and untreated (n=700) at baseline. Most treated patients were receiving monotherapy at baseline, most frequently with entecavir or tenofovir in Germany, France and Turkey, and with lamivudine in Poland and Romania. Use of pegylated interferon was more frequent in Poland and Romania than in other countries. In Romania monotherapy with entecavir increased after it became reimbursed in 2008. Hospitalizations during follow-up were more frequent in Romania (1.45 hospital days/patient-year) and Poland (1.81 days/patient-year) than in Turkey, France and Germany (0.00, 0.05 and 0.10 days/patient-year, respectively); clinic visits were more frequent in Poland (3.20 versus 0.30-1.78 visits/patient-year across other countries). CONCLUSIONS: These results illustrate country-specific patterns in the management of CHB patients across Europe. Observed monitoring patterns, hospitalization rates and other health-care utilization may be related to cost and reimbursement issues; however, further study in individual countries would be required to confirm these (post hoc) observations.

Chronic hepatitis B treatment initiation and modification patterns in five European countries: a 2-year longitudinal, non-interventional study.

BACKGROUND: Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) is an important health concern, but there are few studies describing its management in different countries. This prospective, longitudinal, non-interventional study aimed to assess differences in CHB management in five European countries (Germany, France, Poland, Romania and Turkey). METHODS: Data were collected from CHB patients' records between 2008 and 2010. Patients were stratified by treatment status at baseline (treated or untreated). The primary objective was to estimate the probability of a CHB management modification (treatment initiation or change) among patients from each country during a 2-year follow-up. RESULTS: A total of 1,267 patients were included (567 treated, 700 untreated). Baseline characteristics between countries and treatment status groups were broadly comparable. Most patients had an alanine aminotransferase measurement in the 12 months prior to baseline; proportions of patients with an HBV DNA assessment varied by country and treatment status. The Kaplan-Meier-estimated probability of any treatment modification ranged from 9.4% (Turkey) to 30.1% (Poland) at 12 months and 10.0% (Turkey) to 40.0% (Poland) at 24 months. Modifications were more common in treated than untreated patients. The most frequently reported reasons for modifying treatment were HBV-DNA-related. The majority of treated patients were treated with monotherapy; however, choice of therapy differed between countries. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first longitudinal study describing CHB management in European countries. Differences were observed in treatment and monitoring between countries, but alanine aminotransferase and HBV DNA levels consistently emerged as key tests in the management of CHB in all five countries.

The use of individual patient-level data (IPD) to quantify the impact of pretreatment predictors of response to treatment in chronic hepatitis B patients.

OBJECTIVES: Evidence synthesis is an integral part decision-making by reimbursement agencies. When direct evidence is not available, network-meta-analysis (NMA) techniques are commonly used. This approach assumes that the trials are sufficiently similar in terms of treatment-effect modifiers. When imbalances in potential treatment-effect modifiers exist, the NMA approach may not produce fair comparisons. The objective of this study was to identify and quantify the interaction between treatment-effect and potential treatment-effect modifiers, including time-of-response measurement and baseline viral load in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients. DESIGN: Retrospective patient-level data econometric analysis. PARTICIPANTS: 1353 individuals from two randomised controlled trials of nucleoside-naïve CHB taking 0.5 mg entecavir (n=679) or 100 mg lamivudine (n=668) daily for 48 weeks. INTERVENTIONS: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA levels for both drugs were measured at baseline and weeks 24, 36 and 48. Generalised estimating equation for repeated binary responses was used to identify treatment-effect modifiers for response defined at ≤400 or ≤300 copies/ml. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURES: OR at 48 weeks. RESULTS: The OR for the time-of-response measurement and treatment-effect interaction term was 1.039 (p=0.00) and 1.035 (p=0.00) when response was defined at ≤400 or ≤300 copies/ml, respectively. The baseline HBV DNA and treatment-effect interaction OR was 0.94 (p=0.047) and 0.95 (p=0.096), respectively, for the two response definitions suggesting evidence of interaction between baseline disease activity and treatment effect. The interaction between HBeAg status and treatment effect was not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: The measurement time point seems to modify the relative treatment effect of entacavir compared to lamivudine, measured on the OR scale. Evidence also suggested that differences in baseline viral load may also alter relative treatment effect. Meta-analyses should account for such modifiers when generating relative efficacy estimates.

Global policy: aspects of diabetes in India.

Diabetes has already been described as an epidemic, but predictions for future increases in prevalence, especially in developing countries, point to a major healthcare crisis for the future. Very little is known about the economic impact of diabetes in the developing world where predicted increases in prevalence are greatest. This paper discusses the implications of a recent study of the economic aspects of diabetes in India. The study aims were to estimate the costs of diabetes care and to assess the awareness of patients and healthcare professionals about the prevention and treatment of diabetes. The findings confirm reports from earlier studies of the high costs of treatment amongst all socio-economic patient groups resulting in a serious burden on both patients and state resources alike. Both patients and medical practitioners displayed a lack of comprehension of the need for constant disease monitoring and consistent approaches to tight glycaemic control. The long term economic implications are worrying. With the Indian diabetic population predicted to rise to >80.9 million by the year 2030, immediate health policy restructuring and investment will be needed if the best use is to be made of the scarce healthcare resources.