Adrenal Insufficiency: Investigating Prevalence and Healthcare Utilization Using Administrative Data

CONTEXT: Adrenal insufficiency (AI) is an uncommon, life-threatening disorder requiring lifelong treatment with steroid therapy and special attention to prevent adrenal crisis. Little is known about the prevalence of AI in Canada or healthcare utilization rates by these patients. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to assess the prevalence and healthcare burden of AI in Alberta, Canada. METHODS: This study used a population-based, retrospective administrative health data approach to identify patients with a diagnosis of AI over a 5-year period and evaluated emergency and outpatient healthcare utilization rates, steroid dispense records, and visit reasons. RESULTS: The period prevalence of AI was 839 per million adults. Patients made an average of 2.3 and 17.8 visits per year in the emergency department and outpatient settings, respectively. This was 3 to 4 times as frequent as the average Albertan, and only 5% were coded as visits for AI. The majority of patients were dispensed glucocorticoid medications only. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of AI in Alberta is higher than published data in other locations. The frequency of visits suggests a significant healthcare burden and emphasizes the need for a strong understanding of this condition across all clinical settings. Our most concerning finding is that 94.3% of visits were not labeled with AI, even though many of the top presenting complaints were consistent with adrenal crisis. Several data limitations were discovered that suggest improvements in the standardization of data submission and coding can expand the yield of future studies using this method.