Abstract
The objective of this study was to estimate the burden of disease in incident patients with non-tuberculous mycobacterial pulmonary disease (NTM-PD).
A sample of 7 073 357 anonymised persons covered by German public statutory health insurances was used to identify patients with NTM-PD. In total, 125 patients with newly diagnosed NTM-PD in 2010 and 2011 were matched with 1250 control patients by age, sex and Charlson Comorbidity Index, and followed for 39 months.
The incidence rate for NTM-PD was 2.6 per 100 000 insured persons (95% CI 2.2–3.1). The mortality rate for patients with NTM-PD and the control group in the observational period was 22.4% and 6%, respectively (p<0.001). Mean direct expenditure per NTM-PD patient was €39 559.60 (95% CI 26 916.49–52 202.71), nearly 4-fold (3.95, 95% CI 3.73–4.19) that for a matched control (€10 006.71, 95% CI 8907.24–11 106.17). Hospitalisations were three times higher in the NTM-PD group and accounted for 63% of the total costs. Attributable annual direct costs and indirect work-loss costs in NTM-PD patients were €9093.20 and €1221.05 per control patient, respectively. Only 74% of NTM-PD patients received antibiotics and nearly 12% were prescribed macrolide monotherapy.
Although NTM-PD is considered rare, the attributable mortality and financial burden in Germany are high. Efforts to heighten awareness of appropriate therapy are urgently needed.
Abstract
Newly diagnosed NTM-PD causes substantial healthcare costs and has high mortality http://ow.ly/Y0I03089UBc
Footnotes
This article has supplementary material available from erj.ersjournals.com
Support statement: Assessment and calculation of SHI data by Elsevier Analytics were supported by Insmed Inc. Insmed had no role in the study design, the contents of this manuscript or the decision to publish.
Conflict of interest: Disclosures can be found alongside this article at erj.ersjournals.com
- Received October 28, 2016.
- Accepted January 4, 2017.
- Copyright ©ERS 2017