Background and Aims: Osteoarthritis (OA) represents an increasing societal problem with pain and activity limitation leading to significant economic burden. This study aims to understand the pattern of healthcare resource utilisation (HCRU) in Japan as OA severity worsens.
Methods: Data were drawn from the Adelphi OA Disease Specific Programme (2017-18), a point-in-time study of physicians and their patients in Japan. OA disease severity was categorised as mild, moderate or severe by physicians who provided information about OA-related outpatient visits, scans (x-ray, MRI, CT), emergency room (ER) visits and surgeries. Descriptive statistics were reported.
Results: The study included 393 patients with OA:  41% mild (n=160), 50% moderate (n=196) and 9% severe (n=37). Over the last 12 months, mean number of outpatient visits by disease severity was 8.3, 12.2, and 11.9 for mild, moderate, and severe, respectively. A trend associated with severity was observed in relation to the mean number of imaging scans conducted (1.4 mild, 1.9 moderate and 2.3 severe), and the proportion of patients undergoing surgery for their OA (3%, 3% and 11% for mild, moderate and severe patients, respectively) in the last 12 months. The proportion of patients visiting the ER was consistent across severity categories (2%, 2% and 3% for mild, moderate and severe patients, respectively).
Conclusions: This real world study on patients with OA in Japan demonstrates an association of higher HCRU with increasing OA disease severity. Novel therapies that improve OA symptoms among patients with severe OA could lead to more efficient use of healthcare resources.

THE IMPACT OF OSTEOARTHRITIS DISEASE SEVERITY ON CURRENT HEALTHCARE RESOURCE UTILISATION IN JAPAN - RESULTS FROM A REAL-WORLD STUDY