A population-based study highlights the epidemiology and outcomes of gastroparesis in the UK. The findings were published in the journal Gut.
A retrospective, cross-sectional study investigated the prevalence, incidence, demographics, aetiologies, pharmacological therapies and mortality associated with gastroparesis in the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink population.
In 2016, the overall prevalence of gastroparesis in the UK was 13.8 per 100,000 persons, and the standardised incidence rate was 1.9 per 100 000 person-years. The prevalence of paediatric gastroparesis was 3.6 per 100,000 persons. Prevalence in women was almost twice that in men (20.4 per 100,000 persons vs 10.3 per 100,000 persons). Scotland had the highest regional prevalence in the UK at 31.7 per 100,000 persons.
Idiopathic gastroparesis was the most common aetiology recorded (39.4%), closely followed by diabetic gastroparesis (37.5%). Drug-induced gastroparesis was the third most common aetiology (19.6%). The risk of mortality was substantially higher in patients with diabetic gastroparesis than in those with idiopathic gastroparesis (aHR, 1.9; 95% CI, 1.2-3.0).
68.4 per cent of patients were prescribed at least one prokinetic drug after diagnosis, and the rest were not offered any recognised pharmacological therapy. Domperidone (46.6%) and metoclopramide (22.9%) were the most commonly prescribed drugs.
According to the authors, this is the first population-based study to showcase the epidemiology of gastroparesis in a European nation. "The study findings advance our knowledge related to patient characteristics, management and aetiology of gastroparesis in the UK" they say.
Ye Y, Jiang B, Manne S, Moses PL, Almansa C, Bennett D, Dolin P, Ford AC. Epidemiology and outcomes of gastroparesis, as documented in general practice records, in the United Kingdom. Gut. 2020 Jun 03 [Epub ahead of print]. doi: 10.1136/gutjnl-2020-321277. PMID: 32493829. Abstract.
This article originally appeared on Univadis, part of the Medscape Professional Network.
