Economic and Health Consequences of COPD Patients and Their Spouses in Denmark—1998–2010

Figures & data

Table 1.  Distribution of age and gender in patients with COPD and controls

Gender	COPD	%-Percentage	Controls	%-Percentage
Male	83,338	49	322,233	49
Female	88,219	51	342,588	51
Age distribution
<20	2,269	1	9,070	1
20–29	621	0	2,483	0
30–39	2,469	1	9,870	1
40–49	8,371	5	33,336	5
50–59	22,215	13	87,977	13
60–69	41,906	24	163,867	25
70–79	57,868	34	221,508	33
≥80	35,838	21	136,710	21
Total	171,557	100	664,821	100
Married or co-habiting (Spouses):	86,260 – 50,3		346,524 – 52,1

Table 2.  Health costs and income of COPD patients before and after diagnosis compared with controls

		COPD	Control	P-value
Before	N	859.641	3.290.867
	Outpatient treatment	€ 334	228	<0,01
	Inpatient treatment	€ 1.588	940	<0,01
	Medication	€ 913	436	<0,01
	Public health insurance	€ 359	281	<0,01
	Income from employment	€ 7.443	12.253	<0,01
	Public transfer income total	€ 12.968	11.082	<0,01
	Pension	€ 7.637	7.402	<0,01
	Other public transfers	€ 4.972	3.462	<0,01
	Sickpay (public funded)	€ 359	218	<0,01
	Direct health costs	€ 3.194	1.885
	Indirect costs, foregone earnings	€ 4.810
	Sum of direct and indirect costs	€ 8.004	1.885
	Net costs	€ 6.119
	Social transfer payments	€ 12.968	11.082
	Net costs including transfers	€ 8.006
After	N	764.102	3.934.614
	Outpatient treatment	€ 744	405	<0,01
	Inpatient treatment	€ 5.503	1.783	<0,01
	Medication	€ 1.700	603	<0,01
	Public health insurance	€ 505	360	<0,01
	Income from employment	€ 4.214	7.321	<0,01
	Public transfer income total	€ 13.523	12.871	<0,01
	Pension	€ 9.276	10.606	<0,01
	Other public transfers	€ 3.916	2.112	<0,01
	Sickpay (public funded)	€ 331	153	<0,01
	Direct health costs	€ 8.452	3.151
	Indirect costs, foregone earnings	€ 3.107
	Sum of direct and indirect costs	€ 11.558	3.151
	Net costs	€ 8.408
	Social transfer payments	€ 13.523	12.871
	Net costs including transfers	€ 9.060

(Yearly costs calculated as the average costs with respect to income per year. N = summarized number of individuals × years observed. P-value from bootstrapped t-test. The values given are in Euros).

Figure 1. Health costs of COPD and controls in Euros distributed by age and gender.

Table 3.  Percentage of spouses of COPD patients (after diagnosis) and controls receiving various health care services and income

		Share
		Spouses	Control	P-value
Outpatient treatment	%	37.3	34.8	<0.01
Inpatient treatment	%	17.4	16.1	<0.01
Medication	%	86.8	84.5	<0.01
Public health insurance	%	97.4	96.8	<0.01
Income from employment	%	36.9	37.5	<0.01
Public transfer income total	%	73.1	71.2	<0.01
Pension	%	46.7	47.1	<0.01
Other public transfers	%	22.5	20.8	<0.01
Sickpay (publicly funded)	%	6.6	5.7	<0.01

Bootstrapped Cochran-Armitage test showing whether the fraction received is significant, for each expense type. The values are given in percentages.

Table 4.  Health costs and income of spouses of COPD-patients before and after diagnosis compared with controls

			Spouses	Control	P-value
Before	N	N	484,247	1,931,058
	Outpatient treatment	€	294	277	≤0.01
	Inpatient treatment	€	1,424	1,271	≤0.01
	Medication	€	531	456	≤0.01
	Public health insurance	€	295	284	≤0.01
	Income from employment	€	12,067	14,992	≤0.01
	Public transfer income total	€	9,822	8,780
	Pension	€	5,246	4,987	≤0.01
	Other public transfers	€	4,256	3,518	≤0.01
	Sickpay (publicly funded)	€	320	274	≤0.01
	Direct health costs	€	2,545	2,287
	Indirect costs, foregone earnings	€	2,924
	Sum of direct and indirect costs	€	5,469	2,287
	Net costs	€	3,182
	Social transfer payments	€	9,822	8,780
	Net costs including transfers	€	4,223
After	N	N	377,154	1,966,359
	Outpatient treatment	€	433	400	≤0.01
	Inpatient treatment	€	1,712	1,475	≤0.01
	Medication	€	633	548	≤0.01
	Public health insurance	€	360	349	≤0.01
	Income from employment	€	9,458	10,912	≤0.01
	Public transfer income total	€	11,158	10.413
	Pension	€	7,338	7.589	≤0.01
	Other public transfers	€	3,523	2.605	≤0.01
	Sickpay (publicly funded)	€	297	219	≤0.01
	Direct health costs	€	3,138	2.772
	Indirect costs, foregone earnings	€	1,454
	Sum of direct and indirect costs	€	4,592	2.772
	Net costs	€	1,820
	Social transfer payments	€	11,158	10.413
	Net costs including transfers	€	2,565

(Yearly costs calculated as the average cost with respect to income per year. N = summarized number of individuals × years observed. P-value from ­bootstrapped t-test. The values given are in Euros).

Figure 2a. Income from employment of COPD patients and controls in Euros distributed by age and gender.

Figure 2b. Public transfer income from employment of COPD patients and controls in Euros distributed by age and gender.

Figure 3. Total health expenses, income from employment and public transfer income in Euros of spouses before and after diagnosis of COPD (green) compared with controls (blue).