Comprehensive Analysis of Migraine Burden and Treatment Trends: A Retrospective Cohort Study of Recent Large Multiple Commercial Payer Databases.
Mariya Petrova1, Olya Besedina1, Brendan Hare2, Alankar Gupta1, Shaheen Lakhan1
1Click Therapeutics Inc., 2Boehringer-Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals
Objective:
Migraine affects about 14.4% of the population causing substantial burden. Our objective was to describe the populations of individuals diagnosed with migraine headache with regards to diagnosis and review healthcare service utilization across various categories.
Design/Methods:
We reviewed recent (8/2018 - 7/2021) medical and pharmacy data from Health Verity for N=187,780. The final sample included 76,684 migraine cases matched to (matching criteria included demographic, geographic, comorbidity, and time-based variables) 76,684 non-migraine controls.
Results:
Within the migraine group, 68.4% were female (44.7 yrs, SD=13.9) vs. 69.7% female in the control group (45.6 yrs, SD=14.6). At baseline, migraine cases had higher rates of all-cause healthcare service utilization in each utilization subgroup: Migraine group was more likely to be hospitalized (10.4% vs. 4.5%*), have an Emergency Department (ED) visit (30.3% vs. 11.9%*), have a primary care physician visit (88.1% vs. 54.4%*), have a neurology visit (20.3% vs. 2.0%*), have higher overall use of other medical services, and have higher prescription fill rates (21.3 fills vs 9.53*) (*= p < 0.05).
Similar differences were noted during the follow-up period, with migraine cases having higher rates of all-cause healthcare service utilization in each utilization subgroup. Notably, Neurology visits were 12.2 times more likely among the migraine case group compared to the control group, followed by other outpatient visits (OR: 9.5*), prescription fills (OR: 8.8*), PCP visits (OR: 6.9*), inpatient hospitalizations (OR: 3.4*), and ED visits (OR: 2.9*).
Conclusions:
Migraine groups experienced significantly higher rates of healthcare service utilization across various categories, including hospitalization, ED and PCP visits, neurology consultations, and prescription fill rates underscoring continuous need to enhance the management of this condition.