Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) guidelines emphasize the importance of patient education to improve quality of life and avoid exacerbations. Longitudinal evaluations of structured management of COPD in primary care are lacking.

To evaluate the impact of primary care asthma/COPD clinics on exacerbations, hospitalizations, and associated costs in COPD.

This population-based, retrospective, observational study, linking primary care medical records data to mandatory Swedish national registries, included patients with COPD from 76 primary healthcare centers (1999–2009). A questionnaire on access to an asthma/COPD clinic was retrospectively answered. Propensity score matching was performed at index (COPD diagnosis) by center type (with and without an asthma/COPD clinic). Poisson regression was used to compare the yearly rate of exacerbations (hospitalization, emergency visits, or prescription for oral steroids or antibiotics) and COPD-related prescriptions at the centers. An economic analysis was performed from the Swedish healthcare perspective using 2011 unit costs and the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio was calculated.

The study included 21,361 patients (mean age, 68.0 years; 53% female). Access to asthma/COPD clinics increased from 34% to 85% during the study period. Patients at primary healthcare centers with asthma/COPD clinics had 27% fewer exacerbations (0.71 vs. 0.98) and 37% fewer hospitalizations annually (0.36 vs. 0.58) (p < 0.0001). Asthma/COPD clinics reduced the annual cost of medication and healthcare contacts by 37% (SEK 52,892 [€5858] to SEK 33,410 [€3700] per patient).

Patients at primary healthcare centers with asthma/COPD clinics experienced fewer COPD exacerbations and hospitalizations, and overall treatment costs were substantially reduced.

ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01146392.