Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • Authors/reviewers
    • Instructions for authors
    • Submit a manuscript
    • COVID-19 submission information
    • Institutional open access agreements
    • Peer reviewer login
  • Alerts
  • Subscriptions
  • ERS Publications
    • European Respiratory Journal
    • ERJ Open Research
    • European Respiratory Review
    • Breathe
    • ERS Books
    • ERS publications home

User menu

  • Log in
  • Subscribe
  • Contact Us
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
  • ERS Publications
    • European Respiratory Journal
    • ERJ Open Research
    • European Respiratory Review
    • Breathe
    • ERS Books
    • ERS publications home

Login

European Respiratory Society

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • Authors/reviewers
    • Instructions for authors
    • Submit a manuscript
    • COVID-19 submission information
    • Institutional open access agreements
    • Peer reviewer login
  • Alerts
  • Subscriptions

Impact of the financial crisis on COPD burden: Greece as a case study

Ourania S. Kotsiou, Spyridon Zouridis, Marinos Kosmopoulos, Konstantinos I. Gourgoulianis
European Respiratory Review 2018 27: 170106; DOI: 10.1183/16000617.0106-2017
Ourania S. Kotsiou
1Dept of Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Thessaly, BIOPOLIS, Larissa, Greece
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: raniakotsiou@gmail.com
Spyridon Zouridis
2Faculty of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Panepistimiopolis, Athens, Greece
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Marinos Kosmopoulos
2Faculty of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Panepistimiopolis, Athens, Greece
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Konstantinos I. Gourgoulianis
1Dept of Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Thessaly, BIOPOLIS, Larissa, Greece
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

Abstract

Poverty and low socioeconomic status have been associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The current financial crisis has forced millions back into poverty. Greece is one of the countries hit the hardest, and is in the middle of a deep ongoing collapse. There have been early reports stating the apparent effects of the Greek downturn on respiratory health. This review summarises the overall impact of the financial crisis on COPD burden throughout the period of economic downturn by analysing the case study of Greece. In all levels of the healthcare system, current economic restrictions have reduced the capacity to prevent, diagnose and treat COPD in parallel with current higher detection rates of COPD. Remarkably, expenditure on healthcare has been reduced by >25%, resulting in major healthcare equipment shortages. Lower wages (by up to 20%) and higher co-payments of up to 25% of a drug's purchase price have led to patients struggling to afford inhaled medications. Treatment nonadherence has been reported, resulting in 11.5% more exacerbations and 14.1% more hospitalisations annually, while the mean cost per severe COPD exacerbation has been approximated as €2600. Greece is a noteworthy example illustrating how COPD burden, quality of care and patients' outcome can be affected by economic crisis.

Abstract

Greece has been suffering a high burden of COPD, which has profoundly deteriorated due to the economic crisis http://ow.ly/eXc030hf934

Footnotes

  • Conflict of interest: None declared.

  • Provenance: Submitted article, peer reviewed.

  • Received September 14, 2017.
  • Accepted October 16, 2017.
  • Copyright ©ERS 2018.

ERR articles are open access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Licence 4.0.

View Full Text
PreviousNext
Back to top
View this article with LENS
Vol 27 Issue 147 Table of Contents
European Respiratory Review: 27 (147)
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author
Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on European Respiratory Society .

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Impact of the financial crisis on COPD burden: Greece as a case study
(Your Name) has sent you a message from European Respiratory Society
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the European Respiratory Society web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Print
Citation Tools
Impact of the financial crisis on COPD burden: Greece as a case study
Ourania S. Kotsiou, Spyridon Zouridis, Marinos Kosmopoulos, Konstantinos I. Gourgoulianis
European Respiratory Review Mar 2018, 27 (147) 170106; DOI: 10.1183/16000617.0106-2017

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero

Share
Impact of the financial crisis on COPD burden: Greece as a case study
Ourania S. Kotsiou, Spyridon Zouridis, Marinos Kosmopoulos, Konstantinos I. Gourgoulianis
European Respiratory Review Mar 2018, 27 (147) 170106; DOI: 10.1183/16000617.0106-2017
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Technorati logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Connotea logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
Full Text (PDF)

Jump To

  • Article
    • Abstract
    • Abstract
    • Introduction
    • Estimating the global burden of COPD: prologue of a thorny and arduous problem
    • Investigating pre- and post-crisis prevalence of COPD in Greece
    • Investigating the pre- and post-crisis geographic distribution of COPD in Greece
    • Profile of COPD patients in Greece during the crisis
    • Socioeconomic status and COPD
    • Respiratory mortality in Greece amid an economic crisis
    • Primary prevention of COPD in the years of economic crisis
    • Secondary prevention of COPD in the years of economic crisis
    • Tertiary prevention of COPD in the years of economic crisis
    • Treatment adherence during crisis
    • Economic burden of COPD exacerbations during the Greek crisis
    • Economic burden of COPD hospitalisations in times of austerity
    • Conclusions
    • Acknowledgements
    • Footnotes
    • References
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF

Subjects

  • Epidemiology, occupational and environmental lung disease
  • COPD and smoking
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

More in this TOC Section

  • TB elimination: where are we now?
Show more Health and Politics

Related Articles

Navigate

  • Home
  • Current issue
  • Archive

About the ERR

  • Journal information
  • Editorial board
  • Reviewers
  • Press
  • Permissions and reprints
  • Advertising
  • Sponsorship

The European Respiratory Society

  • Society home
  • myERS
  • Privacy policy
  • Accessibility

ERS publications

  • European Respiratory Journal
  • ERJ Open Research
  • European Respiratory Review
  • Breathe
  • ERS books online
  • ERS Bookshop

Help

  • Feedback

For authors

  • Instructions for authors
  • Publication ethics and malpractice
  • Submit a manuscript

For readers

  • Alerts
  • Subjects
  • RSS

Subscriptions

  • Accessing the ERS publications

Contact us

European Respiratory Society
442 Glossop Road
Sheffield S10 2PX
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 114 2672860
Email: journals@ersnet.org

ISSN

Print ISSN: 0905-9180
Online ISSN: 1600-0617

Copyright © 2022 by the European Respiratory Society