ABSTRACT
Background@#Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is one of the most painful disorder in the orofacial region, and many patients have suffered from this disease. For the effective management of TN, fundamental epidemiologic data related to the target population group are essential. Thus, this study was performed to clarify the epidemiological characteristics of TN in the Korean population. This is the first national study to investigate the prevalence of TN in Korean patients. @*Methods@#From 2014 to 2018, population-based medical data for 51,276,314 subscribers to the National Health Insurance Service of Korea were used for this study. @*Results@#The incidence of TN was 100.21 per 100,000 person-years in the year of 2018 in Korea, and the male to female ratio was 1:2.14. The age group of 51-59 years had the highest prevalence of TN. Constant increases in medical cost, regional imbalance, and differences in prescription patterns by the medical specialties were showed in the management of TN. @*Conclusions@#The results in this study will not only help to study the characteristics of TN, but also serve as an important basis for the effective management of TN in Korea.
ABSTRACT
Background@#Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is one of the most painful disorder in the orofacial region, and many patients have suffered from this disease. For the effective management of TN, fundamental epidemiologic data related to the target population group are essential. Thus, this study was performed to clarify the epidemiological characteristics of TN in the Korean population. This is the first national study to investigate the prevalence of TN in Korean patients. @*Methods@#From 2014 to 2018, population-based medical data for 51,276,314 subscribers to the National Health Insurance Service of Korea were used for this study. @*Results@#The incidence of TN was 100.21 per 100,000 person-years in the year of 2018 in Korea, and the male to female ratio was 1:2.14. The age group of 51-59 years had the highest prevalence of TN. Constant increases in medical cost, regional imbalance, and differences in prescription patterns by the medical specialties were showed in the management of TN. @*Conclusions@#The results in this study will not only help to study the characteristics of TN, but also serve as an important basis for the effective management of TN in Korea.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study is to propose an analysis of trends and characteristics of high-cost patients who take over 40% of total national health insurance medical expenses. METHODS: It has been analyzed the tendency of high-cost patients by open data based on the medical history information of 1 million people among national health insurance subscriber from 2002 to 2015. To conduct detailed study of characteristics of high-cost patients, multiple regression has been performed by sex, age, residence, main provider, and admission status based on the top 5% group. RESULTS: The amount of medical expenses and the number of high-cost patients have gradually increased in decades. The number of high-cost patients for Korean won (KRW) 5,000,000 category has increased by 7.6 times, KRW 10,000,000 category has increased by 14.1 times in comparing of year 2002 and 2015. Top 5% medical expenses have increased by 4.6 times. In consideration of the characteristics of patients, the incidence of high medical expenses has been higher in female patients than male ones, the older patients than in the younger. Patients residence in Gyeonsang or Jeonla province have had a high incidence of medical expenses than other area. The disease including dementia, cerebral infarction, and cerebrovascular disease for high-cost patients has been also increased. CONCLUSION: The major increase factor for high medical expenses is the aging of population. The elderly population receiving inpatient care residing in the province that increases high medical costs have to management. There is an urgent need to develop a mechanism for predicting and managing the cost of high-cost medical expenses for patients who have a heavy financial burden.