Asthma and lower airway diseaseThe burden of adult asthma in the United States: Evidence from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey
Section snippets
Data source
The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) is a nationally representative Department of Pharmacy Practice, survey of the US civilian, noninstitutionalized population.7 It is an overlapping panel design in which each cohort is followed for 2 years. Respondents complete the battery of questions in each round (there are 3 rounds per year). The MEPS Household Component contains detailed self-reported information on demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, health conditions, insurance status,
Unadjusted descriptive statistics
Of the 47,033 adults in MEPS, 2,003 subjects reported an encounter for asthma. Details of the study sample and national asthma prevalence by characteristic are provided in Table I.
All unadjusted measures of productivity were worse for subjects with asthma (Table II). Subjects with asthma were less likely to be employed, missed more work days, experienced more days sick in bed, had lower wages, and were more likely to have activity limitations and inability. Likewise, all unadjusted measures of
Discussion
This study provides estimates of the direct cost and indirect burden of adult asthma in recent nationally representative data in the US. The results suggest that asthma continues to be a significant public health concern and represents a substantial economic burden. Subjects with asthma incurred costs of $1,907 per person annually that can be attributed directly to asthma, resulting in $18 billion in medical expenditures annually that can be attributed to asthma in the US. To provide context,
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Supported by a research grant from Amgen, Inc.
Disclosure of potential conflict of interest: P. W. Sullivan and V. H. Ghushchyan have received research support from Amgen, Inc. V. Belozeroff, S. Lin, and D. R. Globe are employed by Amgen, Inc. The rest of the authors have declared that they have no conflict of interest.