Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University Sains Malaysia, Gelugor, Malaysia. aneesurrehmanr90@gmail.com
  • 2 School of Management Sciences, University Sains Malaysia, Gelugor, Malaysia
  • 3 Department of Political Sciences, Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan, Multan, Pakistan
  • 4 School of Industrial Technology, University Sains Malaysia, Gelugor, Malaysia
  • 5 College of Pharmacy, University of Sargodha, Sargodha, Pakistan
  • 6 School of Medicine and Pharmacy, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, China
  • 7 Department of Pharmacy Practice, Faculty of Pharmacy, Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan, Multan, Pakistan
  • 8 Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Government College University, Faisalabad, Pakistan
  • 9 Department of Pharmacy Practice, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, Pakistan
  • 10 Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan
Sci Rep, 2021 11 19;11(1):22598.
PMID: 34799609 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-01551-5

Abstract

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is associated with substantial humanistic and socioeconomic burden on patients and their caregivers. COPD is expected to be 7th leading cause of disease burden till 2030. The objective of the current study was to assess the humanistic and socioeconomic burden of COPD patients and their caregivers in Malaysia. The burden includes the cost of management of COPD, QOL of COPD patients and their caregivers, work productivity and activity impairment of COPD patients and their caregivers due to COPD. One hundred and fifty COPD patients and their caregivers from the chest clinic of Penang Hospital were included in the study from August 2018 to August 2019. Caregiving cost was estimated using the replacement cost approach, while humanistic and social burden was assessed with the help of health status questionnaires. Overall, 64.66% and 7.1% of COPD patients reported to depend on informal caregivers and professional caregivers respectively. COPD patients reported dyspnoea score as 2.31 (1.31), EQ-5D-5L utility index 0.57 (0.23), CCI 2.3 (1.4), SGRQ-C 49.23 (18.61), productivity loss 31.87% and activity impairment 17.42%. Caregivers reported dyspnoea score as 0.72 (0.14), EQ-5D-5L utility index 0.57 (0.23), productivity loss 7.19% and social activity limitation as 21.63% due to taking care of COPD patients. In addition to the huge direct cost of management, COPD is also associated with substantial burden on society in terms of compromised quality of life, reduced efficiency at the workplace, activity impairment and caregiver burden.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.