Daily Migraine Prevention and Its Influence on Resource Utilization in the Military Health System
Abstract
Migraine is a widespread and disabling neurological disorder with a substantial economic burden due to the frequency and severity of the disease. Daily migraine prevention is recommended for patients who experience regular migraine headaches. While the safety and efficacy of this treatment has been established it is unclear what impact migraine prevention has on health care resource consumption. This study was undertaken to determine if the initiation of daily migraine prevention had an effect on ambulatory health care utilization compared to acute migraine treatment alone. Administrative claims data from the Military Health System were used to conduct a retrospective longitudinal cohort study of 8%436 beneficiaries who received both a diagnosis of headache and a prescription for a migraine-specific abortive medication over a two year time period from 1 October 2002 to 30 September 2004. Patients were categorized by exposure status to daily migraine prevention. New users (N = 1%144) were compared to subjects receiving acute headache treatment alone (N = 2618) during 18 months of follow-up. A series of regression and matching estimators modeled the effect of prevention on ambulatory health care utilization while controlling for patient characteristics selected from Andersen's Behavioral Model of Health Care Utilization.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 2006
- Accession Number
- ADA462439
Entities
People
- Joshua W. Devine
Organizations
- University of Minnesota