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. 2017 Feb 20:12:663-668.
doi: 10.2147/COPD.S122989. eCollection 2017.

Natural course of early COPD

Chin Kook Rhee  1 , Kyungjoo Kim  1 , Hyoung Kyu Yoon  2 , Jee-Ae Kim  3 , Sang Hyun Kim  4 , Sang Haak Lee  5 , Yong Bum Park  6 , Ki-Suck Jung  7 , Kwang Ha Yoo  8 , Yong Il Hwang  7
Affiliations

Natural course of early COPD

Chin Kook Rhee et al. Int J Chron Obstruct Pulmon Dis. .

Abstract

Background and objective: Few studies have examined the natural course of early COPD. The aim of this study was to observe the natural course of early COPD patients. We also aimed to analyze medical utilization and costs for early COPD during a 6-year period.

Methods: Patients with early COPD were selected from Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) data. We linked the KNHANES data of patients with early COPD to National Health Insurance data.

Results: A total of 2,397 patients were enrolled between 2007 and 2012. The mean forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) was 78.6%, and the EuroQol five dimensions questionnaire (EQ-5D) index value was 0.9. In total, 110 patients utilized health care for COPD in 2007, and this number increased to 179 in 2012. The total mean number of days used per person increased from 4.9 in 2007 to 7.8 in 2012. The total medical cost per person also increased from 248.8 US dollar (USD) in 2007 to 780.6 USD in 2013. A multiple linear regression revealed that age, lower body mass index, lower FEV1 (%), and lower EQ-5D score were significantly associated with medical costs.

Conclusion: Even in early COPD patients, some of them eventually progressed and utilized health care for COPD.

Keywords: HIRA; KNHANES; NHI; cost; early COPD; utilization.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure CKR received consulting/lecture fees from MSD, AstraZeneca, Novartis, GSK, Takeda, Mundipharma, Sandoz, Boehringer-Ingelheim, and Teva-Handok. The other authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Number of patients with health care utilization for COPD.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Percentage of patients with health care utilization for early COPD.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Mean medical cost for COPD per person. Notes: Only patients with health care utilization for COPD were analyzed. Patients without utilization were excluded from analysis. Abbreviation: USD, US dollar.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Changes in the medication for COPD. Abbreviations: ICS + LABA, inhaled corticosteroid plus long-acting beta-2 agonist; LAMA, long-acting muscarinic antagonist.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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