Asthma Control and Cost in Latin America

Abstract

Objective: Few patients with asthma have disease that is well-controlled, particularly in Latin American countries. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether partly controlled and uncontrolled asthma are associated with increased costs for asthma-related medications and health care utilization compared with well-controlled asthma in five Latin American countries.

Methods: Using the Global Initiative for Asthma guidelines, we classified respondents from the Latin American Asthma Insights and Management survey into those with well-controlled, partly controlled, and uncontrolled asthma and compared the utilization of health care services and costs among these groups.

Results: Most respondents to our survey (93%) had asthma that was classified as partly controlled or uncontrolled. Across all countries, patients whose asthma was partly controlled or uncontrolled had greater use of asthma-related medications and medical services than did patients whose asthma was well-controlled. After adjusting for age, sex, and country of residence, total costs for asthma-related medications and health care were greater in patients whose asthma was classified as partly controlled and uncontrolled.

Conclusions: Our findings indicate that patients with asthma that are not well-controlled used more health care resources and had greater medical costs in Latin America.

Keywords: Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) guidelines; health care utilization; hospitalization; long-term maintenance medications; oral steroids.