Treatment patterns and cost of exacerbations in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease using multiple inhaler triple therapy in South Korea

Table 1 Baseline demographics, clinical characteristics and HRU (N = 37,400)

Baseline demographics and clinical characteristics
Age (years), mean (SD)	68.8 (10.4)
Age (years) categories, n (%)
40–49	1734 (4.6)
50–59	5659 (15.1)
60–69	10,732 (28.7)
70–79	13,506 (36.1)
80+	5769 (15.4)
Male, n (%)	27,184 (72.7)
Exacerbation history, n (%)	21,070 (56.3)
Moderate^a	15,129 (40.5)
Severe^a	11,126 (29.8)
Number of exacerbations, mean (SD)	2.0 (4.6)
Moderate	1.5 (4.2)
Severe	0.5 (1.3)
Charlson Comorbidity Index^b, mean (SD)	3.0 (2.0)
Elixhauser comorbidities^c, n (%)
Cardiac arrhythmia	4770 (12.8)
Congestive heart failure	6533 (17.5)
Depression	6571 (17.6)
Diabetes with chronic complications	5785 (15.5)
Diabetes without chronic complications	10,961 (29.3)
Fluid and electrolyte disorders	4234 (11.3)
Hypertension, uncomplicated	21,073 (56.3)
Hypertension, complicated	3759 (10.1)
Liver disease	11,501 (30.8)
Peptic ulcer disease	10,394 (27.8)
Peripheral vascular disease	7411 (19.8)
Additional comorbidities
Hyperlipidemia	16,377 (43.8)

Baseline HRU
Number of outpatient visits, mean (SD)
COPD-related	4.1 (7.4)
All-cause	33.1 (29.4)
Number of ER visits, mean (SD)
COPD-related	0.2 (0.6)
All-cause	0.5 (1.3)
Number of hospitalization visits, mean (SD)
COPD-related	0.5 (1.2)
All-cause	2.1 (5.2)
Duration of hospitalization days, mean (SD)
COPD-related	10.9 (9.1)
All-cause	6.7 (8.5)

COPD: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; ER: emergency room; ICD-10-CM: International Classification of Disease, 10^th Edition, Clinical Modification; HRU: healthcare resource utilization; SD: standard deviation
^aA moderate COPD exacerbation was defined as an outpatient visit with a COPD diagnosis and ≥ 1 dispensing for a systemic corticosteroid or antibiotic within 7 days, and a severe COPD exacerbation was defined as an inpatient hospital stay or ER visit with a COPD diagnosis; if a moderate COPD exacerbation event and a severe COPD exacerbation overlapped, or were identified within 14 days of each other, only the severe COPD exacerbation event was counted. ^bCharlson Comorbidity Index scores were calculated based on weights assigned to specific comorbidities. ^cOnly Elixhauser comorbidities that were present in > 10% of the population were reported. ICD-10-CM codes for the component comorbidities of the Charlson Comorbidity Index and Elixhauser comorbidities are presented in Additional file 1: Tables S1 and S2 respectively. Asthma was not included in this study, due to the known poor reliability of asthma diagnosis codes as a reflection of true asthma diagnoses in South Korea

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