Publications by authors named "Florian Kirsch"

Background: There is an evidence gap on whether the choice of specialty care beneficially affects health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This study analyzes how newly initiated pulmonologist care affects the generic and disease-specific HRQoL in COPD patients over a period of 1 year.

Methods: We linked claims data with data from two survey waves to investigate the longitudinal effect of specialty care on HRQoL using linear Difference-in-Difference models based on 1:3 propensity score matched data.

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Unlabelled: BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Adherence to and persistence with inhaled long-acting bronchodilators (ILAB), is commonly considered to be a relevant driver of perceived health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but the topic is rarely studied with real-world data. Using survey and health insurance claims data, this study investigates the effect of adherence to and persistence with ILAB on EQ-5D-5L visual analog scale (VAS) in ILAB users who were enrolled in the German disease management programs (DMP) for COPD.

Methods: Included ILAB users were aged ≥ 18 years, continuously insured with AOK Bavaria and enrolled in the DMP for COPD.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study examines how changes in forced expiratory volume (FEV) and the occurrence of exacerbations affect the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients over one year, focusing on GOLD ABCD groups.
  • Utilizing data from 3,016 COPD patients in Germany, researchers found that a decrease in FEV and experiencing severe exacerbations were both linked to significant declines in disease-specific HRQoL, as measured by the COPD assessment test (CAT).
  • The results indicate that preventing severe exacerbations is crucial for maintaining HRQoL, especially in patients categorized as GOLD A and B, who are at higher risk of worsening health outcomes.
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Background: Little is known about how long-term weight gain affects the health perception of COPD patients.

Objectives: The aim is to evaluate the long-term association of BMI change and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in obese COPD patients.

Methods: Claims and survey data from a COPD disease management program were used to match two groups of COPD patients with BMI ≥ 30 who have differing weight trajectories over a 5-year timespan via propensity score and genetic matching.

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Background: Acute myocardial infarction (AMI), a major source of morbidity and mortality, is also associated with excess costs. Findings from previous studies were divergent regarding the effect on health care expenditure of adherence to guideline-recommended medication. However, gender-specific medication effectiveness, correlating the effectiveness of concomitant medication and variation in adherence over time, has not yet been considered.

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Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is characterized by persistent respiratory symptoms and airflow limitation, which is progressive and not fully reversible. In patients with COPD, body mass index (BMI) is an important parameter associated with health outcomes, e.g.

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Background: Body mass index (BMI) is an important parameter associated with mortality and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, informed guidance on stratified weight recommendations for COPD is still lacking. This study aims to determine the association between BMI and HRQoL across different severity grades of COPD to support patient management.

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: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the third leading cause of mortality worldwide. The chronic progressive disease is accompanied by a high loss of health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The available drugs usually only have symptomatic effects; therefore, non-pharmacological therapies are essential too.

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Objective: Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) carries increased risk of mortality and excess costs. Disease Management Programs (DMPs) providing guideline-recommended care for chronic diseases seem an intuitively appealing way to enhance health outcomes for patients with chronic conditions such as AMI. The aim of the study is to compare adherence to guideline-recommended medication, health care expenditures and survival of patients enrolled and not enrolled in the German DMP for coronary artery disease (CAD) after an AMI from the perspective of a third-party payer over a follow-up period of 3 years.

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Background: Evidence on the economic impact of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) for third-party payers and society based on large real world datasets are still scarce. Therefore, the aim of this study was to estimate the economic impact of COPD severity and its comorbidities, stratified by GOLD grade, on direct and indirect costs for an unselected population enrolled in the structured German Disease Management Program (DMP) for COPD.

Methods: All individuals enrolled in the DMP COPD were included in the analysis.

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: Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) show impairments in health-related quality of life (HRQL). We aimed to find a disease-specific questionnaire for routine application in large cohorts and to assess its additional explanatory power to generic HRQL tool (EQ-5D-5L). : 1,350 participants of the disease management program COPD received the EQ-5D-5L combined with one of the three disease-specific tools: COPD Assessment Test (CAT), Clinical COPD Questionnaire (CCQ) or St.

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Background: Disease management programs (DMPs) for chronic diseases are being increasingly implemented worldwide.

Objectives: To present a systematic overview of the economic effects of DMPs with Markov models. The quality of the models is assessed, the method by which the DMP intervention is incorporated into the model is examined, and the differences in the structure and data used in the models are considered.

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Diabetes is the most expensive chronic disease; therefore, disease management programs (DMPs) were introduced. The aim of this review is to determine whether Markov models are adequate to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of complex interventions such as DMPs. Additionally, the quality of the models was evaluated using Philips and Caro quality appraisals.

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Smoking cessation is the only strategy that has shown a lasting reduction in the decline of lung function in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. This study aims to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of smoking cessation interventions in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, to assess the quality of the Markov models and to estimate the consequences of model structure and input data on cost-effectiveness. A systematic literature search was conducted in PubMed, Embase, BusinessSourceComplete and Econlit on June 11, 2014.

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