TY - JOUR T1 - The effect of early stages of COPD on resource use and health-care costs JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 38 IS - Suppl 55 SP - 1679 AU - Petra Menn AU - Joachim Heinrich AU - Rudolf Huber AU - Rudolf Jörres AU - John Jürgen AU - Stefan Karrasch AU - Annette Peters AU - Holger Schulz AU - Rolf Holle Y1 - 2011/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/1679.abstract N2 - Background: COPD is a common chronic condition in adulthood that has many systemic effects apart pulmonary impairment. While severe COPD has substantial economic consequences, little is known about resource use and costs in early stages.Methods: Data from the population-based KORA F4 and KORA Age study (Southern Germany) were used to calculate excess costs of early stages of COPD. Diagnosis and staging of COPD for 2252 participants aged 41 to 89 was based on pre-bronchodilator spirometry according to GOLD standards. Resource use with regard to physician visits, hospital stays, and drug consumption was compared between participants with COPD stage I, stage II+ (stage II or higher), and subjects with normal lung function. Costs per year were calculated from utilization by applying national unit costs. To control for confounders such as age, sex and education, two-part generalized regression analyses were used to account for the skewed distribution of costs and the high proportion of subjects without any costs.Results: Prevalence of COPD stage I was 12%, and 5% for stage II+. Resource use in all categories was significantly higher in COPD patients than in control subjects. These differences remained present after adjusting for covariates in physician visits and medication, but not in hospital days. Compared to non-COPD participants, adjusted costs per year were only slightly higher in stage I (1875 € compared to 1850 €), but increased by about 50% (to 2898 €) in stage II+.Conclusions: The finding that resource use and costs are considerably higher in moderate but not in mild COPD highlights the economic importance of prevention programs and of interventions aiming at early diagnosis and at delaying disease progression. ER -