Trends in Overactive Bladder Therapy: Associations Between Clinical Care Pathways, Practice Guidelines, and Therapy Utilization Patterns

ABSTRACT Introduction Overactive bladder (OAB) is a chronic condition with significant financial and health‐related consequences. Guidelines and treatment pathways were created to optimize care and provide a clinical framework for diagnosing and managing OAB. However, the impact of these efforts and patterns of medical treatment for OAB are poorly understood. Therefore, we sought to evaluate overall trends in therapy utilization before and after the 2014 American Urological Association (AUA)/Society of Urodynamics, Female Pelvic Medicine and Urogenital Reconstruction (SUFU) OAB guideline amendment and publication of the OAB clinical care pathway in 2016. Methods In this retrospective cohort study, we analyzed data from Optum, a national administrative health and pharmacy claims database, between 2013 and 2018. All adult patients diagnosed with idiopathic OAB were identified by the International Classification of Diseases 9th and 10th Revision codes. Oral OAB therapies were identified using National Drug Codes, while third‐line therapy procedures, onabotulinumtoxinA (BTX), sacral neuromodulation (SNM), and percutaneous tibial nerve stimulation (PTNS), were identified using Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes. The study's primary outcome was the annual number of OAB prescriptions filled by pharmacotherapy class and the number of minimally invasive therapies performed during the study period. The secondary outcome was the association between OAB therapy utilization and various clinical and sociodemographic factors. Patterns of care were analyzed from 2013 to 2018, and initial treatment with each therapy was collected, excluding repeat procedures from the analysis. Results 1 825 782 patients were included in the study. The mean age was 61.1 ± 16.7 years, and 1 071 420 patients were female (58.7%). The number of new OAB diagnoses increased by 369% from 2013 to 2017. During the 6‐year study period, 347 052 (19%) patients were treated with oral and/or third‐line therapies. The overall number of oral medications prescribed peaked in 2016, followed by a 17% decline between 2016 and 2018. In 2013, the two most prescribed oral medications were oxybutynin (46%) and solifenacin (31.8%). By 2018, mirabegron (18.5%) surpassed solifenacin (16.5%), with oxybutynin still accounting for most prescriptions written (55%). Eighty percent of all initial mirabegron prescriptions were filled by patients over the age of 65. The rate of third‐line therapy procedures almost doubled between 2013 and 2018 (9–17 procedures per 1000 OAB patients, p < 0.001). Conclusions Following the publication of the first OAB guidelines, there was an increase in OAB diagnoses, followed by a decrease in anticholinergic medication use, and a rise in beta‐3 agonist utilization in patients over 65 years old. Additionally, there was greater adoption of third‐line OAB therapies. These trends indicate that OAB therapy guidelines and clinical practice pathways may influence treatment patterns. Given the recent publication of the OAB guidelines, further studies are necessary to assess their impact on therapy utilization patterns.