Estimating the incremental costs of home oxygen therapy for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Austria using a microsimulation approach

Introduction and objective: COPD is one of the most common diseases of the lung in Austria. Among other therapeutic interventions, oxygen therapy is an important option for patients whose levels of oxygen in the blood are low (hypoxia). It is used mostly to slow or prevent right-sided heart failure in patients classified as GOLD stage IV. The objective of our study was to assess the incremental costs of home oxygen therapy in patients with COPD GOLD IV in the Austrian setting. Materials and methods: Stratification according to GOLD stages was performed using published epidemiological data. [1,2] Data on the effe…