Effect of the self-management intervention on the medical costs of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Abstract

Objective To explore the effect of self-management intervention on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients' medical costs.Methods Convenience sampling of 84 COPD patients at stable stage or discharged from hospital after treatment in Beijing Hospital and PUMC Hospital were recruited from April 2011 to January 2012.The samples were divided into two subgroups.Intervention group (n =42)performed self-management intervention,patients in control group (n =42) only received usual care.All patients were followed up and collected regarding times of exacerbations or emergency,times or length of hospitalization at 3 months and 6 months respectively.Results There was significant difference between group at both 3 and 6 months,but no difference in times of emergency,times or length of hospitalization were found between groups.And at the 3th months in intervention group,times of emergency and hospitalization times respectively were (4 cases 5times)and (3cases 5times) and that in control group respectively were (5cases11times),(5cases 8times),no significant difference was found between them (P ＞ 0.05),while significant difference was found in exacerbations times (12cases 17times vs 27cases 54times ;Z =-3.361,P ＜ 0.01).No significant difference was found at the 6th months between intervention group and control group in times of emergency (6cases 8times vs 5cases18times) and hospitalization times (4cases 6times vs 6cases 9times),while significant difference was found in exacerbations times (18cases 23times vs 27cases 65times;Z =-3.018,P ＜0.01).Conclusions Self-management intervention can decrease COPD patients' times of exacerbations,and whether can decrease times of emergency,times or length of hospitalization should be study in further. Key words: Lung disease; Chronic obstructive; Acute times; Medical costs