Undiagnosed COPD Has A Major Impact On Health Care Costs, USA

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), which includes the smoking-related lung diseases emphysema and chronic bronchitis, is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, and the prevalence of COPD is growing, especially among women.


Although COPD is common and has a very negative impact on both the quality and quantity of life, efforts to identify and treat persons with this disease are limited, and surveys have revealed that for every person who has been diagnosed with COPD, there is at least one other with significant airflow obstruction who has the disease but does not know it. One reason for this is that the impact of undiagnosed COPD on the health care system is unknown. Health care providers might assume that a disease that is not diagnosed is not costing anything to treat, but a recent study has shown that undiagnosed COPD does in fact cost the health care system thousands of dollars for each case every year.


In a project titled, "The Direct Medical Costs of Undiagnosed COPD", Dr. Douglas Mapel and his colleagues at the Lovelace Clinic Foundation reviewed the healthcare costs for 6864 COPD patients in the years before and immediately after they were first diagnosed, and compared them to similar patients who did not have COPD. In the twelve-month to two years prior to the initial diagnosis of COPD, costs averaged $1182 more for each COPD patient, and in the twelve months immediately before the initial COPD diagnosis, costs were $2489 greater. Most of the increased costs were attributable to hospital care.


"Our findings suggest that earlier diagnosis of COPD might not only be beneficial to the patient in terms of improved treatment and health outcomes, it is likely to be highly cost-effective for the health care system as well" says Dr. Mapel. "Some of the increased hospital use among undiagnosed COPD patients could be avoided or at least reduced by identifying these patients through screening programs for persons at risk for COPD."


The article will be published in Volume 11, Issue 6 of Value in Health, the official journal of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research. Details about COPD diagnosis and treatment are available at goldcopd.


Value in Health (ISSN 1098-3015) publishes papers, concepts, and ideas that advance the field of pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research and help health care leaders to make decisions that are solidly evidence-based. The journal is published bi-monthly and has a regular readership of over 3,000 clinicians, decision-makers, and researchers worldwide.


ISPOR is a nonprofit, international organization that strives to translate pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research into practice to ensure that society allocates scarce health care resources wisely, fairly, and efficiently.


Value in Health Volume 11 Issue 6

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