Economics of Insulin Device vs Conventional Vial and Syringe

Onur Baser, Jonathan Bouchard, Tony DeLuzio, Henry Henk and Mark Aagren

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: Introduction: Diabetes is difficult to manage and treatment involves significant lifestyle adjustments. Unlike the traditional method of insulin administration via the vial and syringe method, insulin pens might be perceived as less cumbersome and have potential to significantly increase patient adherence. Methods: Using “real world” data, we examined the differences in adherence and costs between diabetic patients using an insulin FlexPen® (Novo Nordisk Inc, Princeton, NJ, USA) and those using traditional vial and syringe administration. Using a retrospective analysis of health insurance claims data between the years 2003 and 2008, we examined patients in the FlexPen cohort and analog vial cohort. Propensity score matching was used to match these cohorts (n=532 in each) according to baseline characteristics. Results: Adjusted mean medication possession ratio when switched to FlexPen improved by 22 percentage points versus 13 percentage points when continuing to use vials (P=0.001). Diabetes- related healthcare costs when switched to FlexPen versus continuing on to use vials ($3970 vs. $4838, respectively, P=0.9368) and total healthcare costs ($13,214 vs. $13,212, respectively, P=0.9473) were not statistically different. Conclusion: Without significant addition to the cost, insulin administration with FlexPen is associated with an improved adherence among patients who switched from vial-based insulin administration.

Keywords: adherence; costs; FlexPen; insulin; real world; syringe (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C0 I1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published in Adv Ther 2.27(2010): pp. 94-104

Downloads: (external link)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/101695/1/MPRA_paper_101695.pdf original version (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:101695

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany Ludwigstraße 33, D-80539 Munich, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Joachim Winter ().