Systemic sclerosis & Raynaud's
Health Care Utilization in Systemic Sclerosis Patients With Digital Ulcers
Authors' conclusion
SSc patients with DUs used significantly more health care resources per year even after adjustment for disease severity in other organ systems.
Study context
- Population
- Systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients in a large Canadian SSc registry completing the 84-item Resource Utilization Questionnaire (12-month recall), September 2005 to February 20209,077 questionnaires
- Participants
- 1,698 patients
- Exposure
- SSc with active digital ulcers (DUs) vs matched SSc without DUs
- DUsn = 104
- Without DUsn = 104reference
- Outcome
- Resource utilization, including hospitalizations, outpatient visits, and procedures
- Follow-up
- 1 year
Methodological detailsmatched 1:1 for age, sex, disease subtype, and duration, registry-based, unadjusted and adjusted regression analyses
- Matched 1:1 for age, sex, disease subtype, and duration
- Registry-based
- Unadjusted and adjusted regression analyses
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Resource utilization
- DUs associated with higher number of tests
- P ˂ 0.05
- DUs associated with more visits to a rheumatologist
- P ˂ 0.0001
- DUs associated with more visits to an internist
- P = 0.003
- DUs associated with greater need for an accompanying person
- P ˂ 0.05
- DUs associated with more aids purchased/received
- P ˂ 0.05
- After adjustment for disease severity in other organs, DUs remained a significant predictor of more frequent physician visits and more tests (linear regression)
- P for all ˂ 0.05
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
| Outcome | DUs | Without DUs | P value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total DSS score excluding the peripheral vascular domain | 9.7 ± 4.5 | 5.6 ± 2.7 | P ˂ 0.0001 |
Original publication
Health Care Utilization in Systemic Sclerosis Patients With Digital Ulcers. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). Published 10 December 2022. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →