Joint hypermobility in Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes (EDS) predisposes persons with EDS to frequent subluxations and dislocations, chronic arthralgia, and soft-tissue rheumatism. Epidemiological trends of rheumatologic conditions among persons with EDS are lacking. Prescription claims databases can reflect underlying disease burdens by utilizing medication claims as disease proxies. We examined the prevalence of prescription claims for commonly prescribed immunomodulator and anti-inflammatory (IMD) drugs among persons with EDS compared to their matched controls, and hypothesized peripubertal increases among females with EDS.
We compared the percentages of IMD drug prescription claims among 3484 persons with EDS (aged 5-62) against their age-, sex-, state of residence-, and earliest claim date-matched controls using 10 years (2005-2014) of private prescription claims data, and a minimum two-year enrollment inclusion criterion.
Our cohort comprised 70% adults and 74% females. At least one IMD medication was prescribed to 65.4% persons with EDS compared to 47.4% controls. We observed 1.3 to 4.2 times higher odds (p<0.0001) for five out of six IMD drug classes among persons with EDS compared to matched controls; except for biological agents (cOR=1.3, 95% CI: 0.8-2.0). Peripubertal increases were observed for NSAIDs, oral, and injectable steroids.
To our knowledge, our study is the first study to examine the full range of IMD drug prescription claim trends among persons with EDS. We believe our research findings can have notable diagnostic and management implications for EDS patients, who present with multiple co-morbidities and generally require a more granular assessment of their medical conditions. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.