Economic Burden of COPD by Disease Severity – A Nationwide Cohort Study in Denmark

Figures & data

Figure 1 Diagram showing flow of study participants and final study cohort size.

Table 1 Baseline Characteristics of the COPD Cohort by GOLD Group A-D and for the Total Cohort of 49,826 COPD Patients

	Gold A	Gold B	Gold C	Gold D	All
Patients, n	13,266	16,415	5,790	14,355	49,826
Gender, %
Female	48.2	51.1	54.7	55.8	52.1
Cohabitation status, %
Cohabitation	59.4	50.5	51.3	45.7	51.6
Living alone	40.6	49.5	48.7	54.3	48.4
Age, mean (SD)	65.89 (10.20)	69.91 (10.12)	68.49 (10.32)	71.64 (9.73)	69.17 (10.29)
Age group (years), %
40–49	6.4	3.0	4.0	1.9	3.7
50–59	20.7	13.5	15.8	10.3	14.8
60–69	35.5	29.0	31.7	26.2	30.2
70–79	28.0	36.5	33.2	38.9	34.6
80+	9.3	18.1	15.2	22.7	16.7
Moderate exacerbations, mean (SD)	0.10 (0.30)	0.15 (0.35)	0.35 (0.82)	0.46 (0.92)	0.25 (0.64)
Moderate exacerbations, %
0	90.0	85.4	80.7	74.1	82.8
1–2	10.0	14.6	15.9	21.3	15.4
3+	0.0	0.0	3.5	4.6	1.7
Severe exacerbations, mean (SD)	0.00 (0.00)	0.00 (0.00)	1.06 (0.52)	1.21 (0.72)	0.47 (0.72)
Severe exacerbations, %
0	100.0	100.0	7.2	7.5	62.6
1–2	0.0	0.0	90.7	86.8	35.5
3+	0.0	0.0	2.1	5.8	1.9
MRC score, %
1	28.1	0.0	22.8	0.0	10.1
2	71.9	0.0	77.2	0.0	28.1
3	0.0	54.6	0.0	43.2	30.4
4	0.0	30.7	0.0	33.8	19.8
5	0.0	14.7	0.0	23.0	11.5
Death during follow up (1 Year), %	3.2	11.1	6.1	17.4	10.2

Table 2 Mean Number of Moderate and Severe Exacerbations During the Baseline Year and During the Follow-Up Year, by GOLD Group

	Baseline		Follow-Up
	Moderate Exacerbations	Severe Exacerbations	Moderate Exacerbations	Severe Exacerbations
GOLD A	0.10	0.00	0.10	0.07
GOLD B	0.15	0.00	0.16	0.21
GOLD C	0.35	1.06	0.26	0.28
GOLD D	0.46	1.21	0.31	0.57
Total	0.25	0.47	0.20	0.29

Table 3 Mean Annual Costs per Patient and Their Individually Matched Comparisons (in Euro [€]), Stratified by GOLD Groups

	GOLD A		GOLD B		GOLD C		GOLD D		GOLD All
	COPD Patients	Reference Population	COPD Patients	Reference Population	COPD Patients	Reference Population	COPD Patients	Reference Population	COPD Patients	Reference Population
n	13,266	52,589	16,415	64,672	5790	22,886	14,355	56,476	49,826	196,623
Direct costs
Primary sector	583	445	661	482	651	478	748	495	663	475
Prescription drugs	1407	446	2224	510	1973	479	2731	532	2108	495
Hospital admissions	3899	1799	6553	2107	5936	1997	10,911	2251	6950	2053
Outpatient services	2877	1217	3622	1286	2553	1220	3359	1296	3216	1263
Total direct costs	8766	3906	13,060	4386	11,113	4174	17,749	4575	12,937	4286
Elderly care costs
Elderly care	781	813	2466	1153	1409	1049	4550	1383	2450	1117
Retirement home	5625	3536	14,859	5621	10,260	5106	21,457	6636	13,582	5290
Total elderly care costs	6406	4349	17,325	6774	11,669	6155	26,007	8019	16,032	6407
Total costs*	15,172	8255	30,385	11,160	22,782	10,329	43,756	12,594	28,969	10,693
Indirect costs
Earned income	10,796	16,836	3597	10,778	7175	13,007	2208	8581	5630	12,038
Foregone earnings	6040		7181		5832		6373		6408
Total indirect costs	6040		7181		5832		6373		6408

Note: *Total costs include total direct costs and total elderly care costs.

Table 4 Number of Moderate and Severe Exacerbations and Mean Cost (in Euro [€]) of Exacerbation (Counting 28-Days from Start) per Patient by GOLD Group

GOLD Group	Patients (n)	Moderate Exacerbation			Severe Exacerbation
		Number of Exacerbations	% of Patients Experiencing Exacerbation	Mean Cost per Exacerbation per Patient (€)	Number of Exacerbations	% of Patients	Mean Cost per Exacerbation per Patient (€)
GOLD A	13,266	1273	9.6	744	971	7.32	6616
GOLD B	16,415	2624	16.0	962	3408	20.76	7083
GOLD C	5790	1510	26.1	791	1645	28.41	6928
GOLD D	14,355	4513	31.4	917	8212	57.21	7182
Total	49,826	9920	19.91	888	14,236	28.57	7091

Figure 2 Direct costs in euro (€) in COPD patients, presented as COPD-related and non-COPD-related costs and stratified by GOLD group.