Direct, indirect and total costs (NOK) per patient during a 12 month follow-up for the intervention and control groups
| Control | Intervention | p-value | |||
| Mean±sd | Median 25/75 P | Mean±sd | Median 25/75 P | ||
| Cost items | |||||
| Patient education programme | 0 | 0 | 900±50 | 900 (900/1000) | <0.001 |
| Peak flow meter | 0 | 0 | 200 | 200 | <0.001 |
| Pharmaceuticals/drugs | 3300±3100 | 2400 (1900/4500) | 3700±3400 | 2400 (1000/5600) | 0.703 |
| GP visits | 600±900 | 200 (0/800) | 200±500 | 0 (0/200) | 0.001 |
| Pulmonary physician visits | 55±200 | 0 (0/0) | 52±200 | 0 (0/0) | 0.555 |
| Hospital admissions | 0 | 0 | 700±2700 | 0 (0/0) | 0.116 |
| Travel costs doctor visits | 63±89 | 22 (0/88) | 21±55 | 0 (0/22) | 0.001 |
| Travel costs educational programme | 0 | 0 | 100±34 | 100 (100/100) | <0.001 |
| Total direct costs | 4000±3800 | 3400 (1100/5500) | 5900±4800 | 4100 (2500/8800) | 0.054 |
| Patient time cost for education programme | 0 | 0 | 1200±600 | 1400 (1100/1400) | <0.001 |
| Patient time cost for doctor visits | 300±700 | 0 (0/200) | 100±500 | 0 (0/0) | 0.044 |
| Production loss | 11600±33100 | 0 (0/5100) | 3400±16700 | 0 (0/0) | 0.038 |
| Total indirect costs | 11900±33500 | 200 (0/6400) | 4600±17300 | 1400 (1100/1500) | 0.302 |
| Total costs | 16000±35400 | 5400 (1500/11100) | 10500±20500 | 5800 (4000/10100) | 0.510 |
Both cost items and sums are, if NOK >100, rounded off to nearest NOK 100. *Mann-Whitney U-test
25/75 P=25th and 75th percentiles
The mean number of GP visits, pulmonary physician visits and days off work in the control group were 2.6, 0.2 and 20.5, respectively. The corresponding figures for the intervention group were 0.7, 0.2 and 6.0 17. Median values with 25th and 75th percentiles are shown due to the skewed distribution of data. Time costs include travel time and are only calculated for those being employed, but alternative assumptions are explored through sensitivity analysis
Control: n=39
Intervention: n=32