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Dove Medical Press

The changing landscape of antiviral treatment of herpes zoster: a 17-year population-based cohort study

Overview of attention for article published in ClinicoEconomics and Outcomes Research: CEOR, May 2016
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  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (66th percentile)
  • Above-average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (53rd percentile)

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12 Mendeley
Title
The changing landscape of antiviral treatment of herpes zoster: a 17-year population-based cohort study
Published in
ClinicoEconomics and Outcomes Research: CEOR, May 2016
DOI 10.2147/ceor.s102243
Pubmed ID
Authors

Kevin J Friesen, Silvia Alessi-Severini, Dan Chateau, Jamie Falk, Shawn Bugden

Abstract

Herpes zoster (HZ) is a common viral disease that produces a painful vesicular rash. Early use of antiviral medications is recommended, as it reduces pain and speeds healing. A population-based observational study was conducted to evaluate the changing burden of HZ in the province of Manitoba (Canada) over a period of 17 years. Administrative health care data including medical and hospital records were examined, and International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification and International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification codes were used to identify episodes of HZ between April 1, 1997 and March 31, 2014 in persons aged 20 or over. Annual age-adjusted incidence and hospitalization rates were calculated. Prescription records of HZ-diagnosed persons for acyclovir, valacyclovir, and famciclovir were used to calculate the rates and costs of antiviral treatment. There were 73,893 identified cases of HZ and 1,245 HZ-related hospitalizations between 1997 and 2013. Of these episodes, 42,270 (57.2%) were treated with antiviral medications at a total cost of $4,708,065 (CAD). The age-adjusted incidence of HZ rose from 4.67/1,000 person years in 1997/1998 to 5.67/1,000 person years in 2013/2014, a 21.9% increase. Antiviral treatment rates increased from 41.7% to 66.2% of all diagnosed episodes. Mean treatment costs per episode dropped from $127.29 in 1997/1998 to $56.06 in 2013/2014, primarily due to the introduction of generic antiviral medications. The total cost of antiviral treatment peaked in 2005/2006 at $329,935 and dropped steadily thereafter to $223,973 in 2013/2014. HZ-related hospitalization rates decreased from 3.1% to 0.9%. While both the incidence of HZ and the rates of antiviral treatment have risen substantially, the economic burden from antiviral treatment has been decreasing since a peak in 2005/2006 and was only 3.2% higher in 2013/2014 than in 1997/1998. This drop in cost is attributed to the introduction of generic antiviral drugs.

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X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 2 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 12 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 12 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 3 25%
Student > Ph. D. Student 2 17%
Student > Doctoral Student 1 8%
Student > Bachelor 1 8%
Student > Master 1 8%
Other 1 8%
Unknown 3 25%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 5 42%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 1 8%
Nursing and Health Professions 1 8%
Social Sciences 1 8%
Economics, Econometrics and Finance 1 8%
Other 0 0%
Unknown 3 25%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 4. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 17 August 2018.
All research outputs
#7,811,306
of 25,457,858 outputs
Outputs from ClinicoEconomics and Outcomes Research: CEOR
#167
of 525 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#102,185
of 312,056 outputs
Outputs of similar age from ClinicoEconomics and Outcomes Research: CEOR
#9
of 26 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,457,858 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 69th percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 525 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 12.0. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 66% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 312,056 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 66% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 26 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 53% of its contemporaries.