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Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on pharmacologic treatment of patients newly diagnosed with osteoporosis.
oleh: Micaela White, Lauren Hisatomi, Alex Villegas, Dagoberto Pina, Alec Garfinkel, Garima Agrawal, Nisha Punatar, Barton L Wise, Polly Teng, Hai Le
Format: | Article |
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Diterbitkan: | Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2023-01-01 |
Deskripsi
<h4>Purpose</h4>This study determined whether initiation of pharmacologic treatment was delayed for newly diagnosed osteoporosis patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.<h4>Methods</h4>1,189 patients ≥50 years with newly diagnosed osteoporosis using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) screening at a single academic institution were included. Patients with previous osteoporosis were excluded. Patients diagnosed between March 1, 2018-January 31, 2020 (pre-pandemic cohort, n = 576) were compared to those diagnosed between March 1, 2020-January 31, 2022 (pandemic cohort, n = 613). Age, sex, race, ethnicity, ordering providers (primary vs specialty), and pharmacological agents were evaluated. Primary outcomes included proportion of patients prescribed therapy within 3 and 6-months of diagnosis, and mean time from diagnosis to treatment initiation.<h4>Results</h4>The pre-pandemic cohort had more White patients (74.3 vs 68.4%, p = .02) and no differences between remaining demographic variables. Only 40.5% of newly diagnosed patients initiated pharmacologic therapy within 6 months. Patients treated at 3-months (31.8 vs 35.4%, p = 0.19) and 6-months (37.8 vs 42.9, p = 0.08) were comparable between cohorts (47.2 vs 50.2% p = 0.30). Mean time from diagnosis to treatment initiation was similar (46 vs 45 days, p = 0.72). There were no treatment differences based on gender, race, or ethnicity or between ordering providers (65.1 vs 57.4% primary care, p = 0.08). Bisphosphonates were most often prescribed in both cohorts (89% vs 82.1%).<h4>Conclusions</h4>This is the first study assessing COVID-19's impact on pharmacologic treatment of newly diagnosed osteoporosis. 40.5% of newly diagnosed patients were treated pharmacologically within six months of diagnosis, and the pandemic did not significantly affect treatment rates.