Press Release: Asian-specific multimorbidity significantly amplifies Asthma and COPD costs in Singapore

Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) are projected to be a rapidly growing healthcare cost in Singapore. A series of studies led by Asst Prof Wenjia Chen, researchers Yah Ru Juang and Laura Lim, in collaboration with PHRISM and LKCMedicine’s TARIPH research programme, found that Asthma patients incurred annual healthcare costs averaging SGD $1,610 per patient, around three times higher than non-asthma patients. COPD patients are likely to face greater healthcare needs, with annual healthcare costs averaging SGD $5,290 per patient-year.

Asian-specific multimorbidity patterns were observed, particularly from respiratory, circulatory, and other metabolic diseases. They also identified high costs of adverse health events related to oral corticosteroid (OCS) use in Asthma.

The results indicate that establishing Asian-specific multimorbid care models, will be essential to improving chronic respiratory care and ensuring long-term healthcare sustainability. It can also help to reduce avoidable risk factors, such as excessive OCS use. Integrated, multimorbidity-focused care can include OCS use and multimorbidity risk screening in primary care, structured referral pathways for high-multimorbidity-burden patients and multidisciplinary heart–lung–metabolic clinics.

For more information, please refer to the Press Release here

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