Socioeconomic impact of asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma-COPD overlap syndrome

Jinhee Kim, Young Sam Kim, Kyungjoo Kim, Yeon Mok Oh, Kwang Ha Yoo, Chin Kook Rhee, Jin Hwa Lee

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

Background: Asthma-chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) overlap syndrome (ACOS) is defined as having both features of asthma and COPD, which are airway hyper-responsiveness and incompletely reversible airway obstruction. However, socioeconomic impact of ACOS have not been well appreciated. Methods: Adults with available wheezing history and acceptable spirometry were selected from the fourth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES IV) in 2007-2009. Their data were merged with the Korean National Health Insurance claim data. 'Asthma group' was defined as having self-reported wheezing history and FEV1/FVC ≥0.7, 'COPD group' was defined as having FEV1/FVC < 0.7 and no wheezing, 'ACOS group' was defined as having both wheezing and FEV1/FVC < 0.7, and 'no airway disease (NAD) group' was defined as having no wheezing and FEV1/FVC ≥0.7. Results: Among a total of 11,656 subjects, ACOS comprise 2.2%; COPD, 8.4%; asthma, 5.8% and NAD, 83.6%. Total length of healthcare utilization and medical costs of ACOS group was the top among four groups (P < 0.001), though inpatient medical cost was the highest in COPD group (P=0.025). Multiple linear regression analyses showed that ACOS group (β=12.63, P < 0.001) and asthma group (β=6.14, P < 0.001) were significantly associated with longer duration of healthcare utilization and ACOS group (β=350,475.88, P=0.008) and asthma group (β=386,876.81, P < 0.001) were associated with higher medical costs. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that ACOS independently influences healthcare utilization after adjusting several factors. In order to utilize limited medical resources efficiently, it may be necessary to find and manage ACOS patients.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1547-1556
Number of pages10
JournalJournal of Thoracic Disease
Volume9
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jun 2017

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (2010-0027945).

Publisher Copyright:
© Journal of Thoracic Disease. All rights reserved.

Keywords

  • Asthma
  • Asthma COPD overlap syndrome (ACOS)
  • Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
  • Epidemiology
  • Medical cost

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