Factors Associated with Direct Health Care Costs Among Patients with Migraine

Migraine imposes substantial economic burden on patients and the health care system. Approximately 18% of women and 6% of men suffer from migraine in the United States. This is a heterogeneous group, and little data are available to evaluate factors associated with migraine costs.

To evaluate characteristics associated with high costs among commercially insured patients with migraine.

This retrospective analysis identified patients with migraine in the Truven Health MarketScan Research Databases between January 2008 and June 2013. Patients were required to have 12 months continuous enrollment before and after migraine diagnoses and/or migraine-specific medications (index date). Patients with costs greater than the top 25th percentile of all-cause costs during the 12-month post-index period were classified into the upper quartile (UQ) cohort. Multiple logistic regression was used to evaluate demographic and clinical factors associated with being in the UQ cohort, and generalized linear models were used to estimate the incremental costs by select factors after controlling for other covariates.

In the total population, 857,073 patients (mean [SD] age: 43.2 [12.5] years), were included, with 83.2% females. Average post-index annual all-cause costs were $13,045 (SD = $25,328) with the top 25th percentile of costs at $14,120. Overall, 44.4% and 54.8% of patients had ≥ 1 pre-index claim for opioids and triptans, respectively. Patients with ≥ 2 migraine-related emergency room visits were twice as likely to be in the UQ cohort (OR = 2.13, 95% CI = 2.02-2.25; P < 0.05) and incurred $3,125 incremental all-cause costs compared with those with < 2 visits. Patients who visited a neurologist were 33.0% more likely to be in the UQ cohort and had significantly higher adjusted all-cause costs ($11,794 vs. $9,868, P < 0.05). Opioid users had a 1.5-3 times increased likelihood of being in the UQ cohort (P < 0.05); adjusted all-cause annual costs ranged from $8,888 (95% CI = $8,862-$8,914) for nonusers to $15,210 (95% CI = $15,113-$15,307) for high users (7+ claims). Patients having 7+ triptan claims were 1.2 times as likely to be in the UQ cohort compared with nonusers, with estimated costs of $11,517 (95% CI = $11,438-$11,596) for high users and $10,753 (95% CI = $10,717-$10,790) for nonusers.

Results suggest that certain modifiable factors, such as increased acute medication use (opioids and triptans) and more migraine-related emergency room visits are associated with higher all-cause health care costs for patients with migraine. These findings could be used to identify patients who require early intervention, enhanced symptoms monitoring, and appropriate disease management. Future studies could examine the effect of disease severity on health resource utilization and costs using survey or medical record data.

This study was funded by Amgen and conducted by Truven Health Analytics. Bonafede, Cappell, and Kim are employees of Truven Health Analytics, which received compensation from Amgen for the overall conduct of the study and preparation of the manuscript. Cai was an employee of Truven Health Analytics at the time of this study. Sapra, Shah, and Desai are employees of Amgen. Katherine Widnell was an employee of Amgen when the manuscript draft was developed. Winner reports receiving research support from Allergan, Amgen, A-Z, Teva, Pfizer, Novartis, and Lilly. Study concept and design were contributed by Bonafede, Sapra, Shah, and Desai, along with Widnell and Winner. Kim and Cai took the lead in data collection, assisted by Bonafede and Cappell. Data interpretation was performed by Widnell and Winter, along with the other authors. All authors contributed to the writing and revision of the manuscript.