Treatment Gap in the National Health-screening Program in Korea: Claim-based Follow-up of Statin Use for Sustained Hypercholesterolemia

Participation in a screening program by itself may not improve clinical outcomes. Treatment gaps in the program may limit its full benefit. We evaluated statin prescription rates for subjects with sustained hypercholesterolemia to assess the treatment gaps in the National Health Screening Program (NHSP) in Korea. A retrospective, random cohort was established among National Health Insurance Corporation (NHIC) members. Finally, we examined 465,499 individuals who attended the NHSP from 2003 to 2010 without any history of dyslipidemia, statin prescription, or hospitalization for cardiovascular events until the end of 2002. The subsequent statin prescription rates were identified from the NHIC medical service claim database from 2003 to 2011. Descriptive data and odds ratio from multivariate logistic analyses on statin prescription rates and the corresponding correlations were evaluated. The NHSP detected 114,085 (24.5%) cases of newly diagnosed hypercholesterolemia. However, only 8.6% of these received statin prescription within 6 months of diagnosis. For cases of sustained hypercholesterolemia determined in the next screening visit by the NHSP, the statin prescription rate increased, but only to 12.2%. Statin prescriptions were more common among females, older individuals, and hypertension or diabetes patients. Furthermore, the statin prescription rates had increased over the study period. The NHSP exhibited low statin prescription rate which has been improving. For the NHSP to be effective, it would be worthwhile to decrease the gap between the diagnosis of hypercholesterolemia and the following treatment.

Feasibility of road traffic injury surveillance integrating police and health insurance data sets in the Dominican Republic / Factibilidad de la vigilancia de las lesiones por accidentes de tránsito mediante la integración de los conjuntos de datos de la policía y del seguro nacional de salud en la República Dominicana

OBJECTIVE: To assess the feasibility of semiautomated linking of road traffic injury (RTI) cases in different data sets in low- and middle-income countries. METHODS: The study population consisted of RTI cases in the Dominican Republic in 2010 and were identified in police and health insurance data sets. After duplicates were removed and fatality reporting was corrected by using forensic data, police and health insurance RTI records were linked if they had the same province, collision date, and gender of RTI cases and similar age within five years. A multinomial logistic regression model assessed the likelihood of being in only one of the data sets. RESULTS: One of five records was a duplicate, including 21.1% of 6 396 police and 16.2% of 6 178 insurance records. Health insurance data recorded 43 of 417 deaths as only injured. Capture - recapture estimated that both data sets recorded one of five RTI cases. Characteristics associated with increased likelihood (P < 0.05) of being only in the police data set were female gender [adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 2.5], age ≥ 16 years (OR = 1.7), collision in the regions of Cibao Northeast (OR = 4.1) and Valdesia (OR = 6.4), day of occurrence from Tuesday to Saturday (ORs from 1.5 to 2.9), month of occurrence from October to December (ORs from 1.6 to 4.5), and occupant of four-wheeled vehicles (OR = 5.4) or trucks (OR = 5.3). CONCLUSIONS: Consistent semiautomated linking procedures were feasible to ascertain the RTI burden in the Dominican Republic and could be improved by standardized coding of police and health insurance RTI reporting.

OBJETIVO: Evaluar la factibilidad de la vinculación semiautomática de los registros de casos de lesiones por accidentes de tránsito (LAT) de diferentes conjuntos de datos en países de ingresos bajos y medianos. MÉTODOS: La población de estudio la constituían los casos de LAT ocurridos en la República Dominicana en el 2010 y registrados en los conjuntos de datos de la policía y del seguro nacional de salud. Después de eliminar los casos duplicados y corregir la notificación de defunciones a partir de los datos forenses, se vincularon los registros de LAT de la policía y el seguro de enfermedad si los casos correspondían a la misma provincia, fecha de colisión y sexo, y la edad era similar con una diferencia no superior a cinco años. Se evaluó la probabilidad de aparecer únicamente en uno de los conjuntos de datos mediante un modelo de regresión logística polinómica. RESULTADOS: Uno de cada cinco registros estaba duplicado (21,1% de los 6 396 registros de la policía y 16,2% de los 6 178 registros del seguro). En el conjunto de datos del seguro nacional de salud se registraron 43 de las 417 defunciones como únicamente lesionados. Mediante el método de captura-recaptura se calculó que en ambos conjuntos de datos se registraban uno de cada cinco casos de LAT. Las características asociadas con una mayor probabilidad (P < 0,05) de aparecer únicamente en el conjunto de datos de la policía fueron el sexo femenino (razón de posibilidades ajustada [OR] = 2,5), la edad ≥ 16 años (OR = 1,7), la colisión en las regiones del nordeste de Cibao (OR = 4,1) y Valdesia (OR = 6,4), el día del accidente de martes a sábado (OR de 1,5 a 2,9), el mes del accidente de octubre a diciembre (OR de 1,6 a 4,5) y los ocupantes de vehículos de cuatro ruedas (OR = 5,4) o camiones (OR = 5,3). CONCLUSIONES: Los procedimientos sistemáticos de vinculación semiautomatizada se mostraron factibles para evaluar la carga de LAT en la República Dominicana, y se podrían mejorar mediante la codificación estandarizada de las notificaciones de LAT de la policía y del seguro nacional de salud.