[Cost-of-illness of asthma in Denmark in the year 2000].

INTRODUCTION: The total number of asthmatic patients in Denmark in the year 2000 was about 300,000 out of a total population of 5.3 million. The aim of this study was to evaluate cost-of-illness for all asthma patients in Denmark for the year 2000.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: Direct and indirect costs were obtained from two Danish studies, Sørensen et al [1] and Søndergaard et al [2]. These studies allowed calculation of direct and indirect costs per year per patient. The costs were estimated in 2000-prices. Estimated cost of drugs was extrapolated to the population of asthmatics for which the actual cost was available from nation-wide statistics. The estimated costs of drugs were compared with the actual costs. As costs of asthma increase with the severity of the disease, a correction factor was obtained from the ratio between the actual costs of drugs and the estimated costs. This factor was used to normalise the subpopulations to reflect the entire group of asthma patients.

RESULTS: The total costs of asthma were estimated at 1.9 billion DKK (745 DKK = 100 EURO, year 2000), the direct costs to medicine and treatment were estimated at 1.1 billion DKK and the indirect costs to sick-leave and early retirement pension were estimated at 0.8 billion DKK. Due to the differences in the estimates given by the sources, especially on the indirect costs, we obtained a range of the total cost from 1.4 billion DKK to 2.9 billion DKK in a sensitivity analysis.

DISCUSSION: The estimated cost is consistent with data from other national and international sources, suggesting that our estimate be close to the real cost. Costs due to asthma may be expected to increase due to the increase in prevalence of asthma.