Analysis of the Prescription Patterns of Medications that List Suicide in Use Cautions using the HIRA Claims Data

OBJECTIVE: Suicide has recently become an important social problem. Thus, we analyzed prescription drugs that cause suicidal ideation. METHODS: Of 156 drugs on the the Minister of Food and Drug Safty (MFDS) EZ-Drug site that had “suicide” listed as a side effect, 78 had “suicide” listed as a warning or contraindication; those 78 drugs were analyzed using data from the 2016 Health Insurance and Review and Assessment Services National Patient Sample (HIRA-NPS). RESULTS: 51 “suicide risk” drugs was identified. Of all patients, 5.2% had received such drugs. The prescription rate was 0.8% of all prescriptions, accounting for 1.6% of all prescription days. From logistic regression analysis, the prescription rate for the drugs was approximately 1.1 times higher for women than for men. With regard to age, the prescription rate for patients 66 years and older was 15.5 times higher than those for patients 25-years and lower. With regard to medical departments, the prescription rates in psychiatry and dermatology departments were 8.1 times higher and 0.6 times lower than those in internal medicine departments, respectively. With regard to region, the prescription rates in Daegu and Jeju were 1.3 times higher and 0.79 times lower than those in Seoul, respectively. CONCLUSION: Drug-induced suicidal behavior is possible, and therefore efforts are needed to prevent it.

Towards Actualizing the Value Potential of Korea Health Insurance Review and Assessment (HIRA) Data as a Resource for Health Research: Strengths, Limitations, Applications, and Strategies for Optimal Use of HIRA Data

Health Insurance and Review Assessment (HIRA) in South Korea, also called National Health Insurance (NHI) data, is a repository of claims data collected in the process of reimbursing healthcare providers. Under the universal coverage system, having fee-for-services covering all citizens in South Korea, HIRA contains comprehensive and rich information pertaining to healthcare services such as treatments, pharmaceuticals, procedures, and diagnoses for almost 50 million beneficiaries. This corpus of HIRA data, which constitutes a large repository of data in the healthcare sector, has enormous potential to create value in several ways: enhancing the efficiency of the healthcare delivery system without compromising quality of care; adding supporting evidence for a given intervention; and providing the information needed to prevent (or monitor) adverse events. In order to actualize this potential, HIRA data need to actively be utilized for research. Thus understanding this data would greatly enhance this potential. We introduce HIRA data as an important source for health research and provide guidelines for researchers who are currently utilizing HIRA, or interested in doing so, to answer their research questions. We present the characteristics and structure of HIRA data. We discuss strengths and limitations that should be considered in conducting research with HIRA data and suggest strategies for optimal utilization of HIRA data by reviewing published research using HIRA data.

Comparative Study of Osteoporosis Treatment of Elderly Patients with Degenerative Osteoarthritis of the Knee Joints, according to the Korean Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service Criteria versus the FRAX(R) Criteria / 대한정형외과학회잡지

PURPOSE: To compare and evaluate any differences in the osteoporosis treatments of elderly patients with degenerative osteoarthritis of the knee joints, in accordance with the Korean Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service (HIRA) criteria versus the World Health Organization (WHO) fracture risk assessment tool (FRAX(R), http://www.shef.ac.uk/FRAX/) criteria, which is a fracture risk assessment tool developed by the WHO. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From June 2010 to March 2011, we investigated and screened the target populations of osteoporosis treatments among 65-year-old or older patients with degenerative osteoarthritis of the knee joints who scheduled to undergo elective total knee arthroplasty. They were classified in the treatment group only if they met either the HIRA criterion, defined as having a T score of or =20% or > or =3%, respectively. RESULTS: Of a total of 929 patients, the number of patients included in the treatment group as screened according to the HIRA or FRAX(R) criteria was 562 (60.5%) and 372 (40.0%), respectively. The number of patients who met both criteria was 339 (36.5%), and including 334 non-treated patients (36.0%), a total of 673 patients (72.4%) showed low diagnostic concordance (k=0.471). Of 319 patients diagnosing osteopenia, 33 (10.3%) patients were included in the treatment group according to the FRAX(R) criteria. CONCLUSION: A combination of the HIRA and FRAX(R) criteria is required to improve the current guidelines for osteoporosis treatment.

The role of HIRA gene in the pathogenesis of congenital heart disease / 国际儿科学杂志

Conotruncal defects(CTD) is a kind of severe cardiovascular abnormality, which is the major cause of death in rinatal pelriod. Some researches suggest that CTD and 22q11 microdeletion had close relationship. In addition, HIRA gene is located in 22q11, which was speculated as a candidate gene in CTD.