The Impact of Asthma on Healthcare and Management Costs: A Data-Driven Approach

Background. Asthma is a chronic disease with a large global prevalence, leading to significant economic and social costs.Objective. The aim of this study is to estimate the direct costs associated with asthmatic patients, focusing on potential differences in resource utilization between patients with severe and non-severe asthma.Methods. A data-driven approach was adopted to perform an economic-quantitative analysis of administrative data from Azienda Sanitaria Locale n. 4 (Local Health Authority) in the Liguria Region. After identifying a cohort of asthmatic patients and distinguishing those with severe asthma, costs related to hospitalizations, diagnostic tests, and pharmaceutical expenditures were calculated, taking into account disease severity.Results. The analysis was conducted on a sample of over 7,000 patients, 11% of whom were diagnosed with severe asthma. On average, the annual direct costs per patient amount to €1,800, with pharmaceutical expenses accounting for 52% of the total. Each year, patients with severe asthma cost the Italian National Health Service (NHS) nearly €1,000 more than patients with mild asthma (€2,644 vs. €1,689, p < 0.001). This difference is primarily attributable to the consumption of drugs for obstructive respiratory syndromes.Conclusion. The severity of asthma is a strong predictive factor for the direct costs associated with the disease. Themain driver of the higher costs is the more intensive pharmacological treatment required to control symptoms and prevent exacerbations.

Keywords: ; Asthma; Sever asthma; Direct costs; Management; Economic assessment; Data-driven

Alessandro Malatto, Luca Gandullia, Lucia Leporatti, Marcello Montefiori, Paolo Petralia, L’impatto dell’asma sui costi sanitari e di gestione: un approccio data-driven in "MECOSAN" 129/2024, pp 129-146, DOI: 10.3280/mesa2024-129oa19007