The healthcare cost and clinical burden of herpes zoster infections among patients with rheumatoid arthritis
Client: The Ontario Biologic Research Initiative (OBRI)
Project ID: P2021-101 / 2024 0970 338 000
Research Question/Objectives: The OBRI (Ontario Best Practices Research Initiative) Clinical Cohort (www.obri.ca) is a real-world observational dataset of RA patients in usual care in Ontario Canada designed to answer questions about real-world clinical practice for RA patients. Data linkage of the OBRI cohort with ICES administrative data adds the ability to accurately measure healthcare costs and assess comorbid conditions/medical events.
Prior research on the costs and burden of herpes zoster have relied on population administrative datasets that capture the costs of illness well but do not contain data on the clinical factors associated with costs or burden of disease. Clinical cohort studies of herpes zoster have the opposite limitation, they contain detailed clinical information but no accurate measurement of healthcare costs. An OBRI ICES linked cohort would be unique as it would contain both clinical covariates to account for different clinical characteristics and their effects on costs while also capturing healthcare costs in a standard way directly from the ministry of health databases. OBRI linked data would allow for comparisons between RA patients, the general population, and those with other inflammatory diseases.
Research Objectives:
What are:
- the attributable healthcare costs and clinical conditions of herpes zoster among RA patients with herpes zoster compared to RA patients without herpes zoster over time?
- the associations between RA disease activity, patient reported outcomes, RA medications, rate of hospitalizations, emergency department visits, and comorbities in RA patients with and without herpes zoster?
- the attributable healthcare costs and clinical conditions of herpes zoster among RA patients with herpes zoster compared to the general population without herpes zoster over time?
- the attributable healthcare costs and clinical conditions of herpes zoster among RA patients with herpes zoster compared to the general population with herpes zoster over time?
Results: December 2024