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. 2018 Sep;10(9):5405-5413.
doi: 10.21037/jtd.2018.08.110.

Nationwide use of inhaled corticosteroids by South Korean asthma patients: an examination of the Health Insurance Review and Service database

Joon Young Choi  1 , Hyoung Kyu Yoon  2 , Jae Ha Lee  3 , Kwang Ha Yoo  4 , Bo Yeon Kim  5 , Hye Won Bae  5 , Young Kyoon Kim  1 , Chin Kook Rhee  1
Affiliations

Nationwide use of inhaled corticosteroids by South Korean asthma patients: an examination of the Health Insurance Review and Service database

Joon Young Choi et al. J Thorac Dis. 2018 Sep.

Abstract

Background: Previous studies have found that the prescription rates of inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) were considerably low although it is recommended as the optimal asthma treatment. The aim of this study was to analyze the current status of ICS prescription for asthma patients in the South Korea.

Methods: We evaluated quality assessment data based on nationwide Health Insurance Review and Service (HIRA) database from July 2013 to June 2014. ICS prescription rates in asthma patients were analyzed by types and specialty of medical institutions. Also, we graded medical institutions by their ICS prescription rate. In addition, ICS prescription rates were calculated by patient gender, age, and insurance type.

Results: This study included 831,613 patients and 16,804 institutions in the analysis. The overall mean ICS prescription rate was 22.58%. Tertiary hospitals had the highest mean prescription rate (84.16%) whereas primary healthcare clinics had the lowest (20.71%). By specialty, internal medicine physicians prescribed ICS more frequently compared to other specialists. Of all, 47.17% of medical institutions prescribed ICS to <10% of asthma patients, while less than 6% of institutions prescribed ICS to >80% of asthma patients. Also, we found that female and patients with age >90 or <20 years exhibited lower ICS prescription rate.

Conclusions: The ICS prescription rate was found to be inadequate, given the importance of ICS as an asthma treatment. The prescription rates were especially low in primary healthcare clinics, and by specialists in fields other than internal medicine.

Keywords: Health Insurance Review and Service (HIRA); Inhaled corticosteroid (ICS); Korea; asthma; nationwide-population-based.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: CK Rhee received consulting/lecture fees from MSD, AstraZeneca, Novartis, GSK, Takeda, Mundipharma, Sandoz, Boehringer-Ingelheim, and Teva-Handok. The other authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
ICS prescription rates of different types of medical institution. Data are expressed as median ± interquartile range. ICS, inhaled corticosteroid.
Figure 2
Figure 2
ICS prescription rates by doctors in primary healthcare clinics by medical specialty. Data are expressed as median ± interquartile range. ICS, inhaled corticosteroid.
Figure 3
Figure 3
ICS prescription rates of various medical institution (%). X-axis represents range of ICS prescription rate. Y-axis represents percentage of institution according to ICS prescription rate. ICS, inhaled corticosteroid.
Figure 4
Figure 4
ICS prescription rates according to general patient characteristics. ICS, inhaled corticosteroid; NMA, National Medical Aid; NHI, national health insurance.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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