High pneumonia incidence ups elderly COPD medical costs

Plos One 2013; 10: e75887

Older individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are almost six times more likely to develop pneumonia and eight times more likely to need hospital treatment than those without the disease, US researchers have found.

This significantly increases the direct medical costs for up to 2 years after hospitalization, say Marian Ryan (Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts) and colleagues and has implications for healthcare policy.

“Acute exacerbations due to pneumonia that result in hospitalizations and readmissions are the major contributors to the economic burden of COPD,” Ryan et al write in Plos One.

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