Incidence and prevalence of acromegaly in a large US health plan database

Incidence and prevalence estimates of acromegaly in the United States (US) are limited. Most existing reports are based on European data sources. The objective of this study was to estimate the annual incidence and prevalence of acromegaly in a large US managed care population, overall and stratified by age, sex, and geographic region, using data from 2008 to 2012.

Using administrative claims data, commercial health plan enrollees were identified with acromegaly if they had two or more medical claims with an acromegaly diagnosis code (ICD-9-CM: 253.0×) or one medical claim with an acromegaly diagnosis code in combination with one other claim for a pituitary tumor or pituitary procedure. The first date for an acromegaly-related claim set the index year. Incidence rates for each year were calculated by dividing the number of new acromegaly cases by the calculated person-time at risk. Annual prevalence estimates were calculated by dividing the number with any evidence of acromegaly by the total number of health plan enrollees enrolled for at least 1 day during each calendar year. Incidence and prevalence estimates were stratified by age (0–17, 18–44, 45–64, 65+ years), sex (male, female), and US geographic region of the health plan (Midwest, Northeast, South, West).

Overall annual incidence rates of acromegaly were relatively constant across 2008–2012 with ~11 cases per million person-years (PMPY). Rates increased with age, ranging from 3–8 cases PMPY among children aged 0–17 years old to 9–18 cases PMPY among adults aged 65 and older. Females had 12 cases PMPY on average compared to 10 cases PMPY among men. On average, the Midwest had the lowest incidence rates (7 cases PMPY) compared to the Northeast, South and West (14, 12, and 10 cases PMPY, respectively). The overall annual prevalence of acromegaly was relatively constant across the 5 years from 2008 to 2012 with approximately 78 cases per million each year. Annual prevalence estimates increased with age, ranging from 29–37 cases per million among children aged 0–17 years old to 148–182 cases per million among adults aged 65 years and older. Males and females were similarly affected; each with approximately 77 cases per million each year. The Northeast and South had the highest prevalence estimates (92 and 89 cases per million, respectively); while the estimates for the West and Midwest were lower (65 and 57 cases per million, respectively) each year.

This study examined 5 years of recent data to estimate the incidence and prevalence of acromegaly in a large geographically-diverse managed care population. The incidence rates were higher on average than published rates outside the US (11 vs. 3.3 PMPY), but prevalence estimates were consistent with previous reports. Incidence and prevalence both increased by age, did not differ for males and females, and varied slightly by US geographic region. The age and sex distribution of the selected population matched the known epidemiology of the disease. Using a claims-based approach, this analysis only captured acromegaly cases with an acromegaly-related medical claim. As a result, these estimates may underestimate the incidence and prevalence of acromegaly in US commercial health plans as they did not include individuals who were undiagnosed, in remission, undertreated, or not monitored during the study period. At the same time, these estimates may be viewed as an upper bound on the incidence of acromegaly in the US as the estimates did not include individuals who were in other health plans or uninsured during the study period. Additional evaluations are needed to identify the full extent of acromegaly in the US.