Anticoagulation and use of services in patients with atrial fibrillation in Finland
Background Direct anticoagulants and warfarin are used to prevent strokes associated with non-valvular atrial fibrillation, but there is only limited information on Finnish patients.
Methods Here, we report the use of primary, specialized and social care services, medication and profile of Finnish AF-patients with anticoagulation therapy based on real-world registry data. In addition, we observed in more detail those AF-patients who had used a particular anticoagulant for at least one full year, disaggregated
by age and medication. For this, we looked at the service use and costs, as well as primary and specialized care visits and treatment days due to a selected event (brain events and gastrointestinal bleeding) during the year 2018.
Results Warfarin and apixaban are prescribed, on average, to older and higher-risk patients than other anticoagulants. The total costs of AF-patients’ service use in 2018 were around 2 billion euros. Strokes and post-stroke conditions where behind most of the primary and specialized visits and treatment days.
Conclusions The treatment of AF-patients incurs significant costs to society. Patients taking direct anticoagulants and warfarin differ in terms of patient profile and service use and its costs.
