Multi-National, Cross-Sectional Survey of Healthcare Resource Utilization in Patients with All Stages of Cognitive Impairment, Analyzed by Disease Severity, Country, and Geographical Region.

BACKGROUND

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of the most disabling conditions worldwide and the disease burden increases with the aging global population. There are only a few prospective studies using real-world data to support effective healthcare resource utilization (HCRU) in AD.

OBJECTIVE

To confirm the association between HCRU and AD severity in a real-world population, including patients with all cognitive impairment (CI) severities.

METHODS

Data were drawn from a multi-national, cross-sectional survey of physicians and their consulted patients with all stages (very mild, mild, moderate, and severe) of CI including AD conducted in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK, US, and Canada. Elements of HCRU including medical consultations, professional caregiver hours, hospitalization, and institutionalization were compared between CI severity subgroups, and by country and region.

RESULTS

6,143 CI patients were included with very mild (n = 659), mild (n = 2,473), moderate (n = 2,603), and severe (n = 408) dementia. HCRU increased with increasing CI severity (p < 0.001) for the majority of elements measured. Further analyses of overall and regional populations also confirmed significant increases in most HCRU elements with increasing disease severity. The general trend toward increased HCRU with increased CI severity was also seen in individual countries. Individual country data appeared to indicate that earlier intervention decreased hospitalizations and full-time institutionalization at the later (more severe) disease stages.

CONCLUSION

Our findings confirmed that HCRU increases with increasing CI severity. Effective intervention in early disease could therefore reduce or delay incurring greater HCRU costs associated with more severe disease. Further studies are needed to confirm this hypothesis.