Impact of Asthma Severity and Exacerbation Frequency on Burden of Disease Related Costs in Finland

Evaluating productivity loss and healthcare costs among working-aged individuals with asthma is critical for comprehending the economic burden and guiding healthcare policy decisions. An optimized care of asthma could result in substantial societal benefits by improving workforce participation and reducing healthcare resource use. Recent data on the impact of both asthma severity and exacerbation frequency on overall costs are scarce.

In this retrospective study from Finland, 89,606 working aged patients with asthma were followed from national registers for four years from 2017 to 2020 with the objective to assess the impact of asthma severity and exacerbation frequency on the overall costs arising from direct healthcare resource utilization (visits and drug purchases) and productivity loss (long term sick leaves and disability pensions) with gamma regression models.

Severe asthma, noted in 10% of patients, increased healthcare resource utilization and productivity loss costs by 30% and frequent exacerbations, noted in 13% of patients, by 25%, independently of each other and of age, sex and Charlson comorbidity index. The annual overall cost per patient was € 14,359 for severe asthma with frequent exacerbations, followed by €11,802 in those with non-severe asthma and frequent exacerbations. Most costs were related to productivity losses (60%) compared to direct healthcare costs (40%). The prevalence of asthma increased from 2.7% to 3.0% over the four-year period, an increase was also observed in the subgroup of those with severe asthma.

A substantial disease burden associated with frequent exacerbations in both patients with asthma and severe asthma leads to increased productivity loss and direct healthcare costs. The estimated the total annual cost of working-aged patients with asthma was €715 million in Finland, with 25% of additional costs associated with frequent exacerbations, indicating the potential savings that could be achievable through improved disease control.