Exploring asthma control cutoffs and economic outcomes using the Asthma Control Questionnaire

Background Understanding the effect of worsening asthma control on expenditures and health resource utilization (HRU) is important. Objective To explore the association of economic outcomes with asthma control cutoffs and longitudinal changes on the Asthma Control Questionnaire 5 (ACQ-5). Methods The Observational Study of Asthma Control and Outcomes was a survey of patients with persistent asthma who were patients of Kaiser Colorado, including claims-based HRU. Patients completed the ACQ-5 three times during 1 year between April 2011 and June 2012. The ACQ-5 cutoffs that indicated control were assessed in cross-sectional analyses. Longitudinal changes in control were explored: controlled (ACQ-5 score \u3c0.75), indeterminate (ACQ-5 score 0.75 to \u3c1.5), not well controlled (ACQ-5 score 1.5 to \u3c3.0), and very poorly controlled (ACQ-5 score ≥3.0). Analyses used generalized linear models with log link (expenditures) and negative binomial regression (HRU). Results There were 6,666 completed surveys (1,799 individuals completed all 3 survey waves). In the cross-sectional analyses, compared with an ACQ-5 score less than 0.5, individuals with ACQ-5 scores of 4 to 4.5 incurred 7.2 times the number of oral corticosteroid prescriptions, 4.3 times the number of emergency department visits, 6 times the number of inpatient visits, 10.4 times the number of asthma-specific emergency department visits, 4.58 times the number of asthma-specific inpatient visits, and $2,892 more in all-cause and $1,877 in asthma-specific expenditures during 4 months. In the longitudinal change analyses, individuals who improved from an ACQ-5 of 3.0 or greater to less than 0.75 incurred $6,023 less in asthma-specific expenditures during 4 months than those remaining at an ACQ-5 score of 3.0 or higher. Conclusion Results provide preliminary economic data on possible control cutoffs for the ACQ-5. Improving asthma control over time may result in significant savings that may justify financial investments designed to improve control