Economic burden of COPD in a Swedish cohort: the ARCTIC study

• Published in: International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 2018-01, Vol.13, p.275-285
• Main Authors: Lisspers, Karin, Larsson, Kjell, Johansson, Gunnar, Janson, Christer, Costa-Scharplatz, Madlaina, Gruenberger, Jean-Bernard, Uhde, Milica, Jorgensen, Leif, Gutzwiller, Florian S, Ställberg, Björn
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Absenteeism; Absenteeism (Labor); Age; Age Factors; Aged; Analysis; Asthma; burden; Chronic obstructive lung disease; Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; Codes; Comorbidity; COPD; Cost of Illness; direct cost; Early retirement; Economic aspects; Electronic records; Ethics; Female; Health care costs; Health Care Costs - trends; Health care policy; Health Expenditures - trends; Hospitals; Humans; Income; indirect cost; Maintenance costs; Male; Medical economics; Medical records; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Middle Aged; Models, Economic; Mortality; Original Research; Patients; Prescriptions; Primary Health Care - economics; Primary Health Care - trends; Production management; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive - diagnosis; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive - economics; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive - epidemiology; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive - therapy; Registries; Respiratory system agents; Retirement benefits; Retrospective Studies; Sick leave; Sick Leave - economics; Software; Spirometry; Statistical analysis; Sweden; Time Factors; Treatment Outcome; Variance analysis
• ISSN: 1178-2005; 1176-9106; 1178-2005
• DOI: 10.2147/COPD.S149633

We assessed direct and indirect costs associated with COPD in Sweden and examined how these costs vary across time, age, and disease stage in a cohort of patients with COPD and matched controls in a real-world, primary care (PC) setting. Data from electronic medical records linked to the mandatory national health registers were collected for COPD patients and a matched reference population in 52 PC centers from 2000 to 2014. Direct health care costs (drug, outpatient or inpatient, PC, both COPD related and not COPD related) and indirect health care costs (loss of income, absenteeism, loss of productivity) were assessed. A total of 17,479 patients with COPD and 84,514 reference controls were analyzed. During 2013, direct costs were considerably higher among the COPD patient population (€13,179) versus the reference population (€2,716), largely due to hospital nights unrelated to COPD. Direct costs increased with increasing disease severity and increasing age and were driven by higher respiratory drug costs and non-COPD-related hospital nights. Indirect costs (~€28,000 per patient) were the largest economic burden in COPD patients of working age during 2013. As non-COPD-related hospital nights represent the largest direct cost, management of comorbidities in COPD would offer clinical benefits and relieve the financial burden of disease.