Analysis of pharmaceutical care in patients with psoriatic arthritis using statutory health insurance data

Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is an inflammatory joint disease. Despite numerous health care research studies, there is hardly any data regarding the current state of pharmaceutical care of PsA patients in Germany.

Based on a systematic literature search and routine administrative data from the Rhineland/Hamburg (statutory) health insurance fund ("Allgemeine Ortskrankenkasse", AOK), the present study provides an up-to-date overview of pharmaceutical care of German PsA patients. Selected were those in- and outpatients who - in the first or second quarter of 2014 - had been coded as having the diagnosis of psoriatic arthritis (L40.5+) according to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10-GM version 2015). On the basis of this "predefined cohort", drug prescription data was subsequently analyzed for a five-year period (January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2014).

Overall, 3,205 AOK-insured individuals (45 % male, 55 % female) were diagnosed with PsA. Mean age was 58.9 years; 53.7 % of PsA patients received systemic treatment. Nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) were the most frequently prescribed agents, followed by corticosteroids. Among patients on systemic treatment, 72.1 % were treated with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs); 20.9 % with a combination of DMARDs and biologics.

Not only does pharmacological treatment of PsA have to ensure adequate patient care aimed at preventing disease progression, it also has to be approached with economic responsibility.