Economic Burden and Socio-Ecological Determinants of Asthma and COPD in British Columbia

Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease(COPD) are the two common lung conditions in British Columbia(BC). Given the dynamic character of these two diseases and modified treatment options in recent years, this proposed study aims to assess and update the economic burden of asthma and COPD in British Columbia and determine regional differences and the impact of social-economic aspects on the burden of asthma and COPD.

A continuous observational pool of individuals with asthma and COPD will be built utilizing BC health administrative data from 1997 to 2021. We will compare the excess medical costs and healthcare consumption of COPD and asthma patients to the general BC population by comparing the overall costs of the case and control cohorts. We will examine total costs as well as related expenses. Costs will be modified to reflect current Canadian inflation rates.
Also, relying on the social-economic and disease factors available in BC health administrative data, we will perform an explanatory assessment using a predictive formula to measure the distribution of variation in (1) excess total healthcare costs of asthma and COPD and (2) asthma and COPD hospitalization that can be linked to significant social-economic and these two lung conditions.

Faculty Supervisor:

Mohsen Sadatsafavi

Student:

Partner:

Vancouver Coastal Health

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology

University:

The University of British Columbia

Program: