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Infrequent COPD Exacerbations Pose Significant Cost Burden, Study Finds
Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who have infrequent exacerbations are at greater risk for future flare-ups than patients without exacerbations and, on the whole, incur a greater proportion of health care costs than patients with frequent flare-ups. Researchers published their findings in the Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy. As a result, patients with infrequent COPD flare-ups pose “a significant economic burden,” researchers wrote.
The study spanned 61,750 patients with COPD from 2007 to 2008. Of the participants, 6% had ≥2 exacerbations per year and were categorized as frequent exacerbators, 14% were infrequent exacerbators with 1 exacerbation per year, and 80% were nonexacerbators.
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During the baseline year, average health care costs were $12,837 for participants with frequent exacerbations, $10,480 for participants with infrequent exacerbations, and $7756 for patients with no exacerbations.
Over a 2-year follow-up period, 60% of frequent and 40% of infrequent exacerbators had at least 1 exacerbation per year. Frequent exacerbators were 7 times more likely and infrequent exacerbators were 3 times more likely to have ≥2 exacerbations per year during the follow-up period than nonexacerbators.
Average annual COPD-related health care costs were more than 3 times higher for frequent exacerbators and more than 2 times higher for infrequent exacerbators compared with nonexacerbators.
However “on a total sample-level,” researchers wrote, “infrequent exacerbators were similar if not more burdensome compared with frequent exacerbators in the proportion accounted by these cohorts for total COPD-related costs (23% vs 18%, respectively) and total number of COPD exacerbations per year (26% vs 26%).”—Jolynn Tumolo
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