The results of a new study reveal that healthcare costs for patients with asthma-COPD overlap syndrome (ACOS) were double than for those with just asthma.
Maria Gerhardsson de Verdier, MD, PhD, of the AstraZeneca Research & Development Mölndal at the Medical Evidence and Observational Research Centre in Mölndal, Sweden, and colleagues performed a retrospective analysis of large commercial health plans to identify patients aged at least 6 years with asthma who experienced at least one exacerbation event.
Researchers divided participants into two groups — those with asthma alone (n = 26,060), and those with asthma-COPD overlap syndrome (n = 6,505). Patients in each group were matched for sex, age, region, health plan type, index year and index month.
Results showed healthcare costs for patients with asthma-COPD overlap syndrome were significantly higher than for patients without COPD ($22,393 vs. $11,716; P < .0001).
Asthma costs, which accounted for 29% of total healthcare costs during the study period, were nearly double among patients with asthma-COPD overlap syndrome ($6,319 vs. $3,356; P < .0001), a finding the researchers attributed to an increase in inpatient hospitalizations (34% vs. 14.6%; P < .0001) or emergency department visits (29.6% vs. 19.9%; P < .0001).
