title: The economic consequences of asthma among adults in Sweden.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Asthma is a common disease in most countries. The objective of this study was to estimate the societal costs for subjects with asthma.
  
  
  METHODS
  Telephone interviews regarding resource utilization were made in a representative sample of 115 randomly selected subjects with asthma derived from a large population study of obstructive airway diseases. Direct and indirect costs were measured, and the costs were also transformed with the estimated prevalence of asthma in Sweden.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Average annual costs were SEK 15919 (USD 1592; EUR 1768) per subject with asthma in the ages between 25 and 56 years. The direct and indirect costs were SEK 4931 (31.0%) and SEK 10988 (69.0%), respectively, and were highly dependent of age and disease severity. Assuming that the prevalence is representative for Sweden as a whole, the asthmatics would amount to 226000 in the ages between 25 and 56 years, corresponding to an overall prevalence in Sweden of 6-7%. The total costs of asthma for the society amounted thus to SEK 3.7 billion in these ages.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The total costs of asthma for the society could be estimated at 3.7 billion SEK in the age range of 25-56 years, and thus approximately twice as high in the whole population of Sweden. The costs were strongly dependent on disease severity and increasing age.
authors: Karolinska Institutet, National Institute of Environmental Medicine, Stockholm, Sweden. svenarne.jansson@holmsund.nu
authors: Sven-Arne
authors: SA
authors: Jansson
authors: Eva
authors: E
authors: Rönmark
authors: Bertil
authors: B
authors: Forsberg
authors: Curt
authors: C
authors: Löfgren
authors: Anne
authors: A
authors: Lindberg
authors: Bo
authors: B
authors: Lundbäck
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001249:Asthma / Q000191:economics* / Q000453:epidemiology; D017281:Cost of Illness; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology