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An analysis of the vitamin D overtesting in a tertiary healthcare centre

INTRODUCTION: Vitamin D testing is excessively used in clinical practice, despite of the clinical guidelines statements against population screening for vitamin D deficiency. This study aimed to assess an annual number of performed 25-hydroxy vitamin D (25(OH)D) tests that were unsupported by the na...

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Autores principales: Aralica, Merica, Šupak Smolčić, Vesna, Turk Wensveen, Tamara, Hrabrić Vlah, Snježana, Selar, Mihael, Bilić Zulle, Lidija
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Croatian Society of Medical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8996321/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35464748
http://dx.doi.org/10.11613/BM.2022.020701
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author Aralica, Merica
Šupak Smolčić, Vesna
Turk Wensveen, Tamara
Hrabrić Vlah, Snježana
Selar, Mihael
Bilić Zulle, Lidija
author_facet Aralica, Merica
Šupak Smolčić, Vesna
Turk Wensveen, Tamara
Hrabrić Vlah, Snježana
Selar, Mihael
Bilić Zulle, Lidija
author_sort Aralica, Merica
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: Vitamin D testing is excessively used in clinical practice, despite of the clinical guidelines statements against population screening for vitamin D deficiency. This study aimed to assess an annual number of performed 25-hydroxy vitamin D (25(OH)D) tests that were unsupported by the national guidelines for prevention, detection and therapy of vitamin D deficiency in adults and to calculate associated financial burden for the publicly funded healthcare. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A representative sample of requested 25(OH)D tests in 2018 (N = 474) was formed after selection and randomisation of data set (N = 5298) collected from the laboratory information system database of the Clinical Department for Laboratory Diagnostics, the Clinical Hospital Centre Rijeka. Records were classified in two groups depending on associated medical condition(s) according to the national guidelines. An annual cost of the total and group specific vitamin D testing was calculated on the base of a single test price reimbursed by the Croatian Healthcare Insurance Fund (CHIF). RESULTS: Medical conditions with high-risk for vitamin D deficiency were detected in 43% (206/474) of vitamin D requests (group 1). Conditions not associated with vitamin D deficiency were detected in 57% (268/474) requests (group 2). A total cost of 25(OH)D testing for the CHIF was 58,729.50 EUR (25,523.79 EUR in the group 1 and 33,205.71 EUR in the group 2). CONCLUSIONS: More than half of all 25(OH)D tests performed in the clinical laboratory represent avoidable cost for the public healthcare. Prevention of population screening by vitamin D testing is needed.
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spelling pubmed-89963212022-04-22 An analysis of the vitamin D overtesting in a tertiary healthcare centre Aralica, Merica Šupak Smolčić, Vesna Turk Wensveen, Tamara Hrabrić Vlah, Snježana Selar, Mihael Bilić Zulle, Lidija Biochem Med (Zagreb) Original Articles INTRODUCTION: Vitamin D testing is excessively used in clinical practice, despite of the clinical guidelines statements against population screening for vitamin D deficiency. This study aimed to assess an annual number of performed 25-hydroxy vitamin D (25(OH)D) tests that were unsupported by the national guidelines for prevention, detection and therapy of vitamin D deficiency in adults and to calculate associated financial burden for the publicly funded healthcare. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A representative sample of requested 25(OH)D tests in 2018 (N = 474) was formed after selection and randomisation of data set (N = 5298) collected from the laboratory information system database of the Clinical Department for Laboratory Diagnostics, the Clinical Hospital Centre Rijeka. Records were classified in two groups depending on associated medical condition(s) according to the national guidelines. An annual cost of the total and group specific vitamin D testing was calculated on the base of a single test price reimbursed by the Croatian Healthcare Insurance Fund (CHIF). RESULTS: Medical conditions with high-risk for vitamin D deficiency were detected in 43% (206/474) of vitamin D requests (group 1). Conditions not associated with vitamin D deficiency were detected in 57% (268/474) requests (group 2). A total cost of 25(OH)D testing for the CHIF was 58,729.50 EUR (25,523.79 EUR in the group 1 and 33,205.71 EUR in the group 2). CONCLUSIONS: More than half of all 25(OH)D tests performed in the clinical laboratory represent avoidable cost for the public healthcare. Prevention of population screening by vitamin D testing is needed. Croatian Society of Medical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine 2022-04-15 2022-06-15 /pmc/articles/PMC8996321/ /pubmed/35464748 http://dx.doi.org/10.11613/BM.2022.020701 Text en Croatian Society of Medical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Articles
Aralica, Merica
Šupak Smolčić, Vesna
Turk Wensveen, Tamara
Hrabrić Vlah, Snježana
Selar, Mihael
Bilić Zulle, Lidija
An analysis of the vitamin D overtesting in a tertiary healthcare centre
title An analysis of the vitamin D overtesting in a tertiary healthcare centre
title_full An analysis of the vitamin D overtesting in a tertiary healthcare centre
title_fullStr An analysis of the vitamin D overtesting in a tertiary healthcare centre
title_full_unstemmed An analysis of the vitamin D overtesting in a tertiary healthcare centre
title_short An analysis of the vitamin D overtesting in a tertiary healthcare centre
title_sort analysis of the vitamin d overtesting in a tertiary healthcare centre
topic Original Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8996321/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35464748
http://dx.doi.org/10.11613/BM.2022.020701
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