There are currently no good indicators that can be used to predict the medical expenses of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This was a retrospective study that focused on the correlation between the age, dyspnoea, and airflow obstruction (ADO) index and the Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) on the medical burden in COPD patients, specifically, those of patients with complete ADO index and CCI data in our hospital from January 2015 to December 2016. Of the 396 patients with COPD who met the inclusion criteria, 382 (96.5%) were male, with an average age of 71.3 ± 8.4 years. Healthcare resource utilisation was positively correlated with the ADO index. A significant association was found between the ADO index and CCI of COPD patients (p < 0.001). In-hospitalization expenses were positively correlated with the CCI (p < 0.001). Under the same CCI, the higher the ADO score, the higher the hospitalisation expenses. The ADO quartiles were positively correlated with the number of hospitalisations (p < 0.001), hospitalisation days (p < 0.001), hospitalisation expenses (p = 0.03), and total medical expenses (p = 0.037). Findings from this study show that the ADO index can predict the medical burden of COPD.
Keywords: ADO index; Charlson comorbidity index; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; medical burden.