Serum urate test within six months of urate-lowering therapy

Description

This measure shows the percentage of people who had serum urate testing in the six months following urate-lowering therapy dispensing. Best practice guidelines recommend that people with gout who are prescribed urate-lowering therapy should have their serum urate level monitored at least every six months. Long-term urate-lowering therapy is not recommended for people with asymptomatic hyperuricaemia.

Measure set

Gout domain

Notes about this measure set

This measure differs from that reported for gout in the Equity Explorer.
Laboratory testing was calculated in the years after the year of diagnosis, eg, people diagnosed during the year 2014 were included in the cohort for 2015–19, but not for 2014.

Numerator

Number of people with identified gout aged 20 years and over who had a recorded serum urate laboratory test in the six months following gout-specific urate-lowering therapy (allopurinol, febuxostat or benzbromarone) dispensing.

Denominator

Those aged 20 years and over identified with gout using the HealthTracker method who were dispensed urate-lowering therapy in a year.

Denominator detail

Only those enrolled with a PHO in each year were included.

1026 allopurinol, 4026 febuxostat, 3754 and 4003 benzbromarone.

Denominator exclusions