Medical Costs and Productivity Loss Due to Mild, Moderate, and Severe Asthma in the United States

• Main Authors: Song HJ, Blake KV, Wilson DL, Winterstein AG, Park H
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dove Medical Press 2020-10-01
• Series: Journal of Asthma and Allergy
• Subjects: asthma; health care utilization; medical cost; productivity loss; severity
• Online Access: https://www.dovepress.com/medical-costs-and-productivity-loss-due-to-mild-moderate-and-severe-as-peer-reviewed-article-JAA

Hyun Jin Song,1 Kathryn V Blake,2 Debbie L Wilson,1 Almut G Winterstein,1,3 Haesuk Park1,3 1Department of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy, College of Pharmacy, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA; 2Center for Pharmacogenomics and Translational Research, Nemours Children’s Specialty Care, Jacksonville, FL, USA; 3Center for Drug Evaluation and Safety, University of Florida, Gainsville, FL, USACorrespondence: Haesuk ParkDepartment of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy, College of Pharmacy, University of Florida, 1225 Center Drive, Gainesville, FL 32601, USATel [phone]Fax [phone]Email [e-mail]: Little is known about economic and productivity loss by severity of asthma. We investigate health-care utilization, direct medical costs, and indirect costs due to productivity loss from asthma by severity.Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey database (2010– 2017) of patients with asthma aged ≥ 12 years and categorized them into mild, moderate, and severe asthma groups based on symptom control medications. Study outcomes included health-care utilization, direct medical costs, and indirect costs of asthma-related absenteeism. We used zero-inflated Poisson regression models to estimate incremental health-care utilization and generalized linear models to estimate incremental annual direct medical costs compared to patients without asthma.Results: An estimated 139 million persons had an asthma diagnosis. Of patients with asthma, 77.1%, 22.2%, and 0.7% had mild, moderate, and severe asthma, respectively. Compared to patients without asthma, patients with asthma had incremental mean differences of 4.16 outpatient visits, 0.18 emergency department visits, and 0.07 hospitalizations per year. Annual direct medical costs were significantly associated with asthma severity ($3305 in mild, $7250 in moderate, and $9175 in severe asthma) (P < 0.05). Patients with mild, moderate, and severe asthma reported 0.76, 2.31, and 7.19 missed work or school days, resulting in $106, $321, and $1000 indirect costs per person per year, respectively.Conclusion: Asthma-related direct and indirect costs are significantly associated with asthma severity, with severe asthma medical costs being about three times higher than mild. Controlling asthma symptoms is important to reduce the economic and social burden of asthma.Keywords: asthma, health care utilization, medical cost, productivity loss, severity