AUTHOR=Demeulemeester Romain , Grosclaude Pascale , Grunenwald Solange , Saint-Pierre Philippe , Savy Nicolas , Costa Nadège 

TITLE=Identification and Economic Evaluation of Differentiated Thyroid Cancer Care Consumption Patterns Using Sequence Analysis

JOURNAL=International Journal of Public Health

VOLUME=Volume 69 - 2024

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.ssph-journal.org/journals/international-journal-of-public-health/articles/10.3389/ijph.2024.1606664

DOI=10.3389/ijph.2024.1606664

ISSN=1661-8564

ABSTRACT=This study aims to assess the impact of care consumption patterns and individual characteristics on the cost of treating differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC), in France, with a specific emphasis on socioeconomic position.The methodology involved a net cost approach utiliszing cases from the EVATHYR cohort and controls from the French National Health Insurance database. Care consumption patterns were created using Optimal Matching and clustering techniques. The individual characteristics influence on patterns wasere assessed using multinomial logistic regressions. The individual characteristics and patterns influence on care costs wasere assessed using generaliszed estimating equations.The findings revealed an average cost of €13,753 per patient during the initial three years. Regression models suggested the main predictors of high DTC -specific care consumption tended to include having a high risk of cancer recurrence (OR=4.97), being a woman (OR=2.00), and experiencing socioeconomic deprivation (OR=1.26), though not reaching statistical significance. Finally, high DTCspecific care consumers also incurred higher general care costs (RR=1.35).The study underscores the increased costs ofin managing DTC, shaped by consumption habits and socioeconomic position, emphasiszing the need for more nuanced DTC management strategies.