Social costs of COPD: The impact on healthy life years and productivity loss in Brazil from 2017 to 2022

Abstract

 Objective: To estimate productivity losses due to workdays lost caused by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the Brazilian population. Methods: The study used data from DATASUS, IBGE, social security indicators, deaths, and early retirements due to COPD in Brazil from 2017 to 2022. To estimate the impact of COPD, the following were used: Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) and Productivity-Adjusted Life Years (PALYs), as well as metrics for wage productivity loss (PPS) and nationalized productivity loss (PPN), which evaluates the loss in relation to GDP. Results: More than 196 million workdays were lost due to COPD. The main sources are premature deaths (95,264,088), permanent absences (67,314,232), and early retirement (30,304,490). Hospitalization days (3,221,591) had a minor contribution. The total DALYs observed during the study period was 2,819,332.63 years of healthy life lost due to COPD; a total of 14,997,166 PALYs were lost due to COPD, equivalent to an annual value of R$ 230.7 billion. Considering PPS, we estimate that COPD resulted in productivity losses associated with workforce replacement of R$ 1.38 billion annually; and in relation to PPN, R$ 8.28 billion per year. Conclusions: Absences in COPD patients can lead to higher expenditures on social security benefit payments. This is the first study to correlate socioepidemiological data, health, and social security costs of COPD in Brazil. Considering all losses, COPD can cause losses of R$ 240 billion per year.