LAUSR

INTRODUCTION Advancing age, comorbidity, and financial burden have been observed in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients globally. As Japan is leading the world in aging demographics, similar real-world data are urgently needed for its CHB population to inform all stakeholders. METHODS This cross-sectional study characterized the demographics, comorbidities, and healthcare costs of a large Japanese real-world adult (≥18 years) CHB patient (ICD-10: B18.1) population from the Medical Data Vision database from 01/01/2012 to 31/12/2016. Comorbidities were identified by ICD-10 codes and the annual point-prevalence and Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) score were calculated. Annual mean and median all-cause healthcare utilization and costs per-patient were calculated. Comparison tests were conducted for CCI scores, prevalence of comorbidities and healthcare resource utilization and costs. RESULTS We identified 11,125 CHB patients. Between 2012 and 2016, the mean age increased from 62.0±13.3 to 65.2±13.2 years, and the percentage of those aged ≥65 years increased from 45.6% to 60.7%. The prevalence of cirrhosis remained similar (5.8% in 2012 and 5.6% in 2016, p=0.69) while hepatocellular carcinoma decreased from 6.3% to 4.5% (p<0.01). The prevalence of non-liver comorbidities increased (40.9% to 52.0% for cancer (p<0.01), 12.1% to 17.7% for osteoporosis (p<0.01), and 10.7% to 15.0% for renal impairment (p<0.01). Healthcare resource utilization and costs also increased, with a 119.3% increase in the median total healthcare costs from ¥229,143 in 2012 to ¥502,467 in 2016 (p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS The CHB population of Japan is predominantly elderly and carry a high non-liver comorbidity burden, while incurring increasing healthcare costs.