Healthcare resource consumption in Italian patients with COPD: The MISTRAL study

Introduction: COPD is associated with increased resource consumption that contributes to substantial socioeconomic burden. Here, we describe resource consumption in Italian COPD patients from the MISTRAL study. Methods: MISTRAL was a prospective, observational cohort study in COPD patients, grouped in 2 cohorts based on exacerbation history in year prior to inclusion (frequent exacerbators [FEs] ≥2 exacerbations; non-frequent exacerbators [NFEs] ≤1 exacerbation). Resource consumption (hospitalisations/emergency room (ER) visits, specialist outpatient visits, medical calls/rehabilitation sessions, laboratory/diagnostic tests) was evaluated in 2 cohorts and overall population. Results: Of 1468 evaluable patients (80.5% of patients at baseline had ≥1 comorbidity), 21.3% had at least 1 hospitalisation/ER visits for COPD-related complications in 6 months prior to enrolment that decreased to 10.7% in first 6 months after enrolment and 9.3% from 6 to 12 months and 7.4% from 12 to 24 months. Similar trend was observed for hospitalisation/ER visits due to exacerbations. Other healthcare resources also declined progressively over follow-up period. Resource consumption is given in Table. Conclusion: Overall resource consumption reduced during study. Resource consumption was higher among FEs vs NFEs at all evaluable time points. High proportion (>70%) of FEs became NFEs during study, which could have contributed to reduction in resource consumption.