BACKGROUND & AIMS
While gastroparesis carries a considerable healthcare and patient burden, associated epidemiological data are limited. To provide new real-world evidence for gastroparesis, we estimated disease prevalence, and investigated patient demographics and disease etiology in a large US claims database.
METHODS
This retrospective, cross-sectional analysis used de-identified, longitudinal patient-level enrollment and billing data for adults from the Optum® Clinformatics® Data Mart database, a large US national administrative health insurance claims database. Prevalence was age-, sex-, and geographical region-standardized using the 2018 US census. Descriptive analyses of demographic and clinical variables and underlying disease etiologies were performed.
RESULTS
The overall standardized prevalence of gastroparesis was 267.7 (95% confidence interval [CI] 264.8-270.7) per 100 000 persons in US adults, while prevalence of 'definite' gastroparesis (individuals diagnosed within three months of gastric emptying scintigraphy testing with persistent symptoms for over three months) was 21.5 (95% CI 20.6-22.4) per 100 000 persons. Patients with gastroparesis had an overall Charlson Comorbidity Index score of 4.2, indicating substantial comorbidity burden. The most frequently documented comorbidities were chronic pulmonary disease (46.4%), diabetes with chronic complication (37.3%), and peripheral vascular disease (30.4%). Patients most commonly had a diabetic etiology (57.4%; type 1, 5.7% and type 2, 51.7%), followed by post-surgical (15.0%), drug-induced (11.8%), and idiopathic (11.3%) etiologies.
CONCLUSIONS
New evidence is provided regarding the prevalence, patient demographics, and etiology of gastroparesis in the US general population. Wider availability of reliable objective gastric emptying measures and further education of medical professionals in recognizing and diagnosing gastroparesis would benefit future studies and improve understanding of disease epidemiology.