RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 The cost of treating severe refractory asthma in the UK: an economic analysis from the British Thoracic Society Difficult Asthma Registry JF Thorax JO Thorax FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and British Thoracic Society SP 376 OP 378 DO 10.1136/thoraxjnl-2013-204114 VO 70 IS 4 A1 Stephen O'Neill A1 Joan Sweeney A1 Chris C Patterson A1 Andrew Menzies-Gow A1 Rob Niven A1 Adel H Mansur A1 Christine Bucknall A1 Rekha Chaudhuri A1 Neil C Thomson A1 Chris E Brightling A1 Ciaran O'Neill A1 Liam G Heaney A1 on behalf of the British Thoracic Society Difficult Asthma Network YR 2015 UL http://thorax.bmj.com/content/70/4/376.abstract AB Severe refractory asthma poses a substantial burden in terms of healthcare costs but relatively little is known about the factors which drive these costs. This study uses data from the British Thoracic Society Difficult Asthma Registry (n=596) to estimate direct healthcare treatment costs from an National Health Service perspective and examines factors that explain variations in costs. Annual mean treatment costs among severe refractory asthma patients were £2912 (SD £2212) to £4217 (SD £2449). Significant predictors of costs were FEV1% predicted, location of care, maintenance oral corticosteroid treatment and body mass index. Treating individuals with severe refractory asthma presents a substantial cost to the health service.