Incidence and Cost of Pneumonia in Older Adults with COPD in the United States

To estimate the incidence of pneumonia by COPD status and the excess cost of inpatient primary pneumonia in elders with COPD.A retrospective, longitudinal study using claims linked to eligibility/demographic data for a 5% sample of fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries from 2005 through 2007.Incidence rates of pneumonia were calculated for elders with and without COPD and for elders with COPD and coexistent congestive heart failure (CHF). Propensity-score matching with multivariate generalized linear regression was used to estimate the excess direct medical cost of inpatient primary pneumonia in elders with COPD as compared with elders with COPD but without a pneumonia hospitalization. ($23,215 in cases vs. $ 17,274 in controls, p