Abstract
Asthmatic patients frequently have comorbidities, but the role of comorbidities in the economic burden of asthma is unclear. We examined the excess direct medical costs, including asthma- and comorbidity-related costs, in patients with asthma.
We created a propensity score-matched cohort of patients newly diagnosed with asthma and non-asthmatic comparison subjects, both aged 5–55 years, from health administrative data (1997–2012) in British Columbia, Canada. Health services use records were categorised into 16 major disease categories based on International Classification of Diseases codes. Excess costs (in 2013 Canadian dollars ($)) were estimated as the adjusted difference in direct medical costs between the two groups.
Average overall excess costs were estimated at $1058/person-year (95% CI 1006–1110), of which $134 (95% CI 132–136) was attributable to asthma and $689 (95% CI 649–730) to major comorbidity classes. Psychiatric disorders were the largest component of excess comorbidity costs, followed by digestive disorders, diseases of the nervous system, and respiratory diseases other than asthma. Comorbidity-attributable excess costs greatly increased with age but did not increase over the time course of asthma.
These findings suggest that both asthma and comorbidity-related outcomes should be considered in formulating evidence-based policies and guidelines for asthma management.
Abstract
Costs of comorbidities are much higher than costs associated with asthma itself http://ow.ly/Lutb303lPye
Footnotes
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Support statement: This study was funded by the Canadian Respiratory Research Network (CRRN). CRRN is supported by grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health, Canadian Lung Association (CLA)/Canadian Thoracic Society (CTS), British Columbia Lung Association, and industry partners Boehringer-Ingelheim Canada Ltd, AstraZeneca Canada Inc., and Novartis Canada Ltd. Funding for training of graduate students and new investigators within the network was supported by the above funding sponsors, as well by GlaxoSmithKline Inc. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, or preparation of the manuscript. M. Sadatsafavi receives salary support from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research. Funding for this article has been deposited with the Open Funder Registry
Conflict of interest: None declared.
- Received June 8, 2016.
- Accepted August 10, 2016.
- Copyright ©ERS 2016