Objective: To compare the healthcare costs and effects of budesonide/formoterol in a single inhaler with those of budesonide and formoterol monotherapies, and placebo, in a multinational study in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute...

Objective: To compare health expenditures among elderly Medicaid patients with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who used either nebulized levalbuterol (levosalbutamol) or racemic albuterol (salbutamol) for bronchodilation. Methods: A retrospective, quasi-experimental study...

Background: One particularly difficult challenge in evaluating disease management (DM) programs is defining the scope of economic outcomes to include in the evaluation. Measuring `all-cause utilization' or `total costs' assumes that a DM intervention impacts the entire spectrum of services...

Background: Missing data resulting from premature study withdrawal are a common problem in the analysis of longitudinal data in clinical trials. To date, this subject has received little attention in the context of economic evaluations and with regard to the analysis of cost data. Objectives: To...

Pulmonary rehabilitation programs aim to improve the health of elderly patients disabled by lung disease. Despite the widespread application of these programs limited scientific data is available on the subject, except in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This review presents an...

Poor adherence with medical regimens by patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major problem facing medical practitioners, with patients typically taking approximately half the prescribed doses of self-administered medications. Poor adherence with medication...

There is a lack of emphasis on health-related QOL (HR-QOL) changes associated with acute exacerbation of chronic bronchitis (CB) or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The aim of this review is to examine the use of HR-QOL instruments to evaluate acute exacerbation of CB or COPD, so as...

Objective: To develop a Markov model that allows the cost effectiveness of interventions in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to be estimated, and to apply the model to investigate the cost effectiveness of an inhaled corticosteroid/long-acting beta2-adrenoceptor agonist...

Background:Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is currently the fourth leading cause of death worldwide. It has serious health effects and causes substantial costs for society. Abstract: Objectives:Objectives: The aim of the present paper was to develop a state-of-the-art...

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide, but before the development of several new pharmacological treatments little could be done for COPD patients. Recognition that these new treatments could significantly improve the...