BACKGROUND: In Europe, health-care policies are determined at a national level and differ between countries. This analysis from a prospective, longitudinal, non-interventional study aimed to describe patterns in the clinical monitoring and treatment of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) in five European countries. METHODS: Country-specific cohorts of adult patients with compensated CHB managed in clinics in Germany, France, Poland, Romania and Turkey were followed for up to 2 years between March 2008 and December 2010. RESULTS: A total of 1,267 patients were included. Baseline age and gender distribution were similar across countries for patients who were treated (n=567) and untreated (n=700) at baseline. Most treated patients were receiving monotherapy at baseline, most frequently with entecavir or tenofovir in Germany, France and Turkey, and with lamivudine in Poland and Romania. Use of pegylated interferon was more frequent in Poland and Romania than in other countries. In Romania monotherapy with entecavir increased after it became reimbursed in 2008. Hospitalizations during follow-up were more frequent in Romania (1.45 hospital days/patient-year) and Poland (1.81 days/patient-year) than in Turkey, France and Germany (0.00, 0.05 and 0.10 days/patient-year, respectively); clinic visits were more frequent in Poland (3.20 versus 0.30-1.78 visits/patient-year across other countries). CONCLUSIONS: These results illustrate country-specific patterns in the management of CHB patients across Europe. Observed monitoring patterns, hospitalization rates and other health-care utilization may be related to cost and reimbursement issues; however, further study in individual countries would be required to confirm these (post hoc) observations.
BACKGROUND: In Europe, health-care policies are determined at a national level and differ between countries. This analysis from a prospective, longitudinal, non-interventional study aimed to describe patterns in the clinical monitoring and treatment of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) in five European countries. METHODS: Country-specific cohorts of adult patients with compensated CHB managed in clinics in Germany, France, Poland, Romania and Turkey were followed for up to 2 years between March 2008 and December 2010. RESULTS: A total of 1,267 patients were included. Baseline age and gender distribution were similar across countries for patients who were treated (n=567) and untreated (n=700) at baseline. Most treated patients were receiving monotherapy at baseline, most frequently with entecavir or tenofovir in Germany, France and Turkey, and with lamivudine in Poland and Romania. Use of pegylated interferon was more frequent in Poland and Romania than in other countries. In Romania monotherapy with entecavir increased after it became reimbursed in 2008. Hospitalizations during follow-up were more frequent in Romania (1.45 hospital days/patient-year) and Poland (1.81 days/patient-year) than in Turkey, France and Germany (0.00, 0.05 and 0.10 days/patient-year, respectively); clinic visits were more frequent in Poland (3.20 versus 0.30-1.78 visits/patient-year across other countries). CONCLUSIONS: These results illustrate country-specific patterns in the management of CHB patients across Europe. Observed monitoring patterns, hospitalization rates and other health-care utilization may be related to cost and reimbursement issues; however, further study in individual countries would be required to confirm these (post hoc) observations.
Authors: Seng Gee Lim; Deepak N Amarapurkar; Henry Lik-Yuen Chan; Darrell H Crawford; Edward J Gane; Kwang-Hyub Han; Sang Hoon Ahn; Wasim Jafri; Jidong Jia; Jia-Horng Kao; Laurentius A Lesmana; C Rinaldi A Lesmana; Rosmawati Mohamed; Pham Hoang Phiet; Teerha Piratvisuth; Shiv K Sarin; Jose D Sollarno; Yuichiro Eguchi; Mamun-Al Mahtab; Keat Hong Lee Journal: Hepatol Int Date: 2014-12-11 Impact factor: 6.047
Authors: Hannah M Lee; Joseph Ahn; W Ray Kim; Joseph K Lim; Mindie Nguyen; Calvin Q Pan; Donghee Kim; Ajitha Mannalithara; Helen Te; Huy Trinh; Danny Chu; Tram Tran; Jocelyn Woog; Anna S Lok Journal: Dig Dis Sci Date: 2018-09-20 Impact factor: 3.199
Authors: Patrick T F Kennedy; Samuel Litwin; Grace E Dolman; Antonio Bertoletti; William S Mason Journal: Viruses Date: 2017-04-29 Impact factor: 5.048
Authors: Luna Colagrossi; Lucas E Hermans; Romina Salpini; Domenico Di Carlo; Suzan D Pas; Marta Alvarez; Ziv Ben-Ari; Greet Boland; Bianca Bruzzone; Nicola Coppola; Carole Seguin-Devaux; Tomasz Dyda; Federico Garcia; Rolf Kaiser; Sukran Köse; Henrik Krarup; Ivana Lazarevic; Maja M Lunar; Sarah Maylin; Valeria Micheli; Orna Mor; Simona Paraschiv; Dimitros Paraskevis; Mario Poljak; Elisabeth Puchhammer-Stöckl; François Simon; Maja Stanojevic; Kathrine Stene-Johansen; Nijaz Tihic; Pascale Trimoulet; Jens Verheyen; Adriana Vince; Snjezana Zidovec Lepej; Nina Weis; Tülay Yalcinkaya; Charles A B Boucher; Annemarie M J Wensing; Carlo F Perno; Valentina Svicher Journal: BMC Infect Dis Date: 2018-06-01 Impact factor: 3.090