Patient reported burden of asthma on resource use and productivity across 11 countries in Europe.
BACKGROUND
Asthma affects 30 million people in Western Europe, leading to substantial burden on healthcare systems and economies. REcognise Asthma and LInk to Symptoms and Experience (REALISE™) was a large European survey across 11 countries assessing patient attitudes and behaviors towards their asthma. The present study utilizes REALISE™ data to understand resource use and absenteeism in asthma.


METHODS
Data were collected on absenteeism and healthcare resource use from 8000 asthma patients (aged 18-50 years) across the 11 countries. All data were patient reported. Odds ratios (ORs) were calculated against the country with the lowest proportion of respondents for hospitalization (as a proxy for lowest resource use).


RESULTS
Patient characteristics were broadly similar across countries. However, self-reported asthma control status varied. More than 50% of respondents in most countries considered primary healthcare professionals (HCPs), i.e., general practitioners and nurses, the main HCP they see about their asthma. However, in some countries, specialists or nurses were considered the main HCP. Hospitalization was lowest amongst patients in the Netherlands. Resource use and productivity loss varied widely across the countries; ORs for hospitalization ranged from 1 in Sweden to 4 in Norway and for productivity loss from 0.6 in Sweden to 2.6 in Italy, compared with the Netherlands.


CONCLUSIONS
This study quantified utilization of healthcare resources in asthma (number of visits of HCPs, hospitalization, and accident and emergency visits) as well as absenteeism and showed that differences exist across countries. The differences in primary care and specialist use suggest a possible difference in healthcare delivery across countries.


BACKGROUND
Mundipharma International Limited, Cambridge, UK.
CEO Office, Education for Health, Warwick, UK.
Monica
M
Fletcher
Ashok
A
Jha
William
W
Dunlop
Louise
L
Heron
Verena
V
Wolfram
Thys
T
Van der Molen
David
D
Price
D000041:Absenteeism; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001249:Asthma / Q000191:economics*; D017281:Cost of Illness; D004526:Efficiency; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006296:Health Services / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D057566:Self Report