Ischemic Heart Disease and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Hospitalizations in Japan Before and After the Introduction of a Heated Tobacco Product.

To substantiate the beneficial effects of switching from cigarette smoking to heated tobacco products (HTP), this study conducted a time-trend analysis using data from the Japanese Medical Data Center (JMDC) database. Specifically, we assessed hospitalization numbers for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations and acute ischemic heart disease (IHD) before and after the introduction of HTPs in the Japanese market. This study replicated a previous study using a different Japanese real-world data source (Medical Data Vision). We retrieved the number of hospitalizations associated with the International Classification of Diseases-10 codes for COPD and IHD from 2010 to 2019-5 years before to 4 years after introducing HTPs in the Japanese market-from the JMDC database. Then, we used interrupted time-series analyses to test the hypothesis that the introduction of HTPs is associated with a reduction in hospitalizations for COPD (all codes), COPD exacerbation, COPD exacerbation plus lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI), and IHD, adjusting for age, sex, seasonality, and flu vaccination rates. Analysis of all available data from the JMDC database revealed a significant reduction in the number of hospitalizations for COPD (all codes;