Patient Characteristics, Healthcare Contacts and Drug Use in Polycythaemia Vera in Denmark

Patients with polycythaemia vera (PV) may experience symptoms and cardiovascular complications before receiving a diagnosis. Understanding the associated patterns of healthcare and drug utilisation may help detect patients who need diagnostic workup. In this study, we described healthcare contacts and prescription drug use in patients with PV in Denmark before and after their diagnosis.

We conducted a descriptive study using national Danish registries, matching patients with PV diagnosed between 2012 and 2021 (n = 1428) to the background population on age and sex.

Patients with PV had a median age of 70 years [61-77] with an equal distribution of men and women. The patients were comparable to the comparison group across most characteristics except for a history of cardiovascular disease. In the 3 months before and 6 months after diagnosis, patients with PV had an increased number of healthcare contacts and rate of new drugs. The drug rate returned to baseline after 6 months, while outpatient contacts remained increased.

Patients with PV experienced an increase in healthcare and drug utilisation around the time of diagnosis, but were comparable to the background population up to 3 months before, with no indicators allowing earlier detection of PV related to drug use or healthcare contacts.