Using Electronic Health Records and Linked Claims Data to Assess New Medication Use and Primary Nonadherence in Rheumatology Patients
Authors' conclusion
New DMARD use was accurately distinguished from prevalent use with EHR prescriptions and simple new user definitions that include current medications collected during medication reconciliation. Primary nonadherence was frequent and varied by DMARD class.
Study context
- Population
- Rheumatology patients with first (index) electronic health records (EHR) prescriptions, single-specialty rheumatology EHR from >700 US community practices linked to claims
- Participants
- 12,405 index EHR prescriptions
- Exposure
- EHR-derived new user definitions vs linked claims data
- Outcome
- PPV of EHR-derived new user definitions to identify true incident use (no prior claims)
Methodological detailsEHR linked to administrative claims data, claims data as reference standard, more than 700 community practices
- EHR linked to administrative claims data
- Claims data as reference standard
- More than 700 community practices
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
PPV for true incident use
PPV, index EHR prescriptions overall
0.59 to 0.67
PPV, excluding medications listed during EHR medication reconciliation
0.76 to 0.85
PPV, additionally requiring ≥12 elapsed months since first rheumatology office visit
0.87 to 0.93
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Primary nonadherence (no subsequent claims) · three months
- Overall
- 33% to 38%
- csDMARDs
- 15% to 23%
- tsDMARDs
- 54% to 64%
Original publication
Using Electronic Health Records and Linked Claims Data to Assess New Medication Use and Primary Nonadherence in Rheumatology Patients. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). Published 18 January 2024. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →