Simply put, patients with RA were more likely to have a suboptimal quality of life than patients without RA.
Implications for Clinical Practice
Yinan Huang, MS, PhD, assistant professor of pharmacy administration, School of Pharmacy, and research assistant professor, Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Mississippi, was kind enough to share her take on the clinical implications of this fascinating research.
The Rheumatologist (TR): What should practicing rheumatologists take away from your findings?
Dr. Huang
Dr. Yuang (YH): Patients with RA not only suffer from functional limitations but also face increased healthcare costs, primarily due to prescription drug use.
TR: What can’t this study tell us?
YH: Some data variables are not available in the MEPS data, such as the type of RA, duration of RA and disease severity. The lack of this RA-related clinical information [may] introduce unmeasured variable bias, which further limits the explanation of these findings.
TR: Why is this kind of research important?
YH: Our study’s findings outline the overall burden facing the RA population. In particular, it helps raise awareness of the humanistic and economic burden facing the group with RA. Our findings have implications for health policy and clinical practice, particularly regarding the prioritization of healthcare resources for RA management. In clinical practice, it may be beneficial to assess humanistic outcomes, such as HRQoL and functional limitations, to inform treatment strategies for RA.
Overall, findings from this study highlight the need to prioritize functional outcome improvement, such as physical independence, the ability to perform daily tasks and mobility in patients with RA.
TR: Are there any other major takeaways that you want to stress to readers?
YH: Our findings suggest that RA is a chronic progressive disease with substantial economic and humanistic burden as compared to the general population. These national-level data found that most RA-related health expenditures were due to prescription medication administration and hospital inpatient services. In addition, patients with RA have suboptimal HRQoL compared to controls without RA.
Overall, prescribers should evaluate the HRQoL impact when prescribing treatment to adults with RA, and managed care professionals and payers should be aware of the high expenditures of RA due to high-cost prescription medications.
Conclusion
RA continues to take a major toll on our patients, both physically and economically. Studies like these provide the proof needed to effect change on healthcare policy down the pipeline.
