Tsuda M, et al. – The physicians intended to investigate trends in the prescription for H. pylori eradication therapy, they used the electronic medical claims database from Hokkaido, Japan to assess the effect of the expansion of national health insurance coverage for H. pylori eradication therapy on deaths from gastric cancer. After approval of the gastritis indication by the national health insurance scheme, prescriptions for H. pylori eradication therapy increased markedly and was correlated with a significant decrease in gastric cancer deaths.

Methods

• The physicians obtained data on deaths from gastric cancer from the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and the Cancer Statistics in Japan (2015).
• They performed analysis of electronic claims records using the National Database, mainly focusing on Hokkaido.
• They also extracted prescriptions for H. pylori eradication therapy and the number of patients treated for gastric cancer from the Hokkaido database.

Results

• For H. pylori eradication therapy, about 1.5 million prescriptions were written annually.
• As per this study, gastric cancer deaths fell each year: 48427 in 2013, 47 903 in 2014, 46659 in 2015, and 45509 in 2016, showing a significant decrease after expansion of insurance coverage for H. pylori eradication therapy (P<.0001).