Observational study of the outcomes and costs of initiating maintenance therapies in patients with moderate exacerbations of COPD

Table 1 Baseline description of study sample

	Descriptive analysis	Cohort analysis
Characteristic	TOTAL N = 21,524	FSC n = 925	AC n = 1,924
Age, mean (SD)	57.4 (11.2)	57.0 (10.2)	59.2^a (10.6)
Female, n (%)	12,220 (56.8%)	557 (60.2%)	1,066^a (55.4%)
US geographic region, ^a n (%)			^a
East	7,213 (33.5%)	367 (39.7%)	498 (25.9%)
Midwest	7,603 (35.3%)	320 (34.6%)	772 (40.1%)
South	3,250 (15.1%)	138 (14.9%)	324 (16.8%)
West	3,458 (16.1%)	100 (10.8%)	330 (17.2%)
CCI, mean (SD)	0.81 (1.3)	0.87 (1.4)	0.84 (1.3)
Asthma, n (%)	2,054 (9.5%)	156 (16.9%)	209^a (10.9%)
URTI, n (%)	6,607 (30.7%)	298 (32.2%)	520^a (27.0%)
LRTI, n (%)	4,937 (22.9%)	287 (31.0%)	545 (28.3%)
Number of SABA canisters, mean (SD)	0.39 (1.8)	0.86 (2.8)	0.52^a (1.9)
Number of OCS prescriptions, mean (SD)	0.35 (1.2)	0.42 (1.2)	0.41 (1.2)
Use of home oxygen therapy, n (%)	167 (0.8%)	6 (0.6%)	35^a (1.8%)
COPD-related pharmacy costs, ^b mean (SD)	$85 (165)	$102 (160)	$83^a (171)
Pulmonologist/allergist care on index date, n (%)	1,072 (5.0%)	86 (9.3%)	114^a (5.9%)

KEY: AC – anticholinergic; CCI – Charlson comorbidity index; COPD – chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; FSC – fluticasone propionate-salmeterol 250/50 mcg; OCS – oral corticosteroid; LRTI – lower respiratory tract infection; SABA – short-acting beta agonist; SD – standard deviation; URTI – upper respiratory tract infection.
^aSignificant difference between FSC and AC cohorts at level 0.05; all other comparisons are non-significant.
^bPharmacy costs only include costs of non-maintenance medications, as no maintenance medications are allowed in the pre-period.

ISSN: 1465-993X