Estimating the Health and Economic Impact of Improved Management in Prevalent Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Populations in England, Germany, Canada, and Japan: A Modelling Study

Abstract

Elisabeth J Adams,1 Alexander van Doornewaard,1 Yixuan Ma,1 Nurilign Ahmed,1 Man Ki Cheng,1 Henrik Watz,2 Masakazu Ichinose,3 Tom Wilkinson,4 Mohit Bhutani,5 Christopher J Licskai,6– 8 Katy M E Turner1 1Aquarius Population Health, London, UK; 2Pulmonary Research Institute at Lungen Clinic Grosshansdorf, Airway Research Center North (ARCN), German Center for Lung Research (DZL), Grosshansdorf, Germany; 3Academic Center of Osaki Citizen Hospital, Osaki, Japan; 4Southampton University Faculty of Medicine, Southampton, UK; 5University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; 6London Health Sciences Centre, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada; 7Lawson Health Research Institute, London, Ontario, Canada; 8Asthma Research Group Windsor Essex County Inc., Windsor, Ontario, CanadaCorrespondence: Elisabeth J Adams, Aquarius Population Health, Unit 29 Tileyard Studios, London, N7 9AH, UK, Tel [phone], Email [email protected]: COPD is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality globally. Management is complex and costly. Although international quality standards for diagnosis and management exist, opportunities remain to improve outcomes, especially in reducing avoidable hospitalisations.Objective: To estimate the potential health and economic impact of improved adherence to guideline-recommended care for prevalent, on-treatment COPD populations in four high-income settings.Methods: A disease simulation model was developed to evaluate the impact of theoretical improvements to COPD management, comparing outcomes for usual care and policy scenarios for interventions that reduce avoidable hospitalisations: 1) increased attendance (50% vs 31– 38%) of early follow-up review after severe exacerbation hospitalisation; 2) increased access (30% vs 5– 10%) to an integrated disease management (IDM) programme that provides guideline adherent care.Results: For cohorts of 100,000 patients, Policy 1 yielded additional life years (England: 523; Germany: 759; Canada: 1316; Japan: 512) and lifetime cost savings (-£ 2.89 million; -€ 6.58 million; -$40.08 million; -¥ 735.58 million). For Policy 2, additional life years (2299; 3619; 3656) and higher lifetime total costs (£ 38.15 million; € 35.58 million; ¥ 1091.53 million) were estimated in England, Germany and Japan, and additional life years (4299) and cost savings (-$20.52 million) in Canada. Scenarios found that the cost impact depended on the modelled intervention effect size.Conclusion: Interventions that reduce avoidable hospitalisations are estimated to improve survival and may generate cost savings. This study provides evidence on the theoretical impact of policies to improve COPD care and highlights priority areas for further research to support evidence-based policy decisions.Keywords: health intervention, exacerbations, re-admission, integrated care, economic evaluation

Keywords

• health intervention
• exacerbations
• re-admission
• integrated care
• economic evaluation.