Comparison of Cost and Effectiveness between Salmeterol/Fluticasone and Tiotropium in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Group B Bangklam Hospital

Abstract

This study was a retrospective study to compare the cost and effectiveness of Salmeterol/Fluticasone and Tiotropium in COPD group B at Bang Klam Hospital,
Songkhla Province.The sample consisted of 38 patients, 22 of whom received Salmeterol/Fluticasone, and the remaining 16 patients received Tiotropium. The data were collected from the Hos XP system for both outpatients and inpatients from October 2022 to December 2023. The data included general patients information: gender, duration of disease, history of smoking and other underlying diseases, monthly drug expenses and drug effectiveness. The data were analyzed using frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation and Mann - Whitney U test.  

The result of the study found that the monthly drug expenditure of patients receiving Tiotropium was 582.23 bath and patients receiving Salmeterol/Fluticasone was 154.06 bath. In addition, the comparison of drug effectiveness found that the number of times to visit the emergency room due to exacerbation was significantly (p-value<0.05). The group of patients received Tiotropium had a higher average number to visit the emergency room visits than the group receiving Salmeterol/ Fluticasone.

Therefore, when choosing drugs for patients with COPD group B, Salmeterol/ Fluticasone should be considered as the first choice to help reduce the hospital’s drug expenditure and reduced the number of patients with exacerbation.