Cost-effectiveness issues related to malnutrition and nutritional intervention in COPD

Because nutritional counseling and oral nutritional supplements are competing with other treatments for a part of the publicly funded healthcare budget it is important to assess its cost-effectiveness. However, there is virtually no evidence on the economic implications of these interventions in COPD. Therefore we start this section with a paragraph describing the association between nutritional status and healthcare utilization/costs in COPD. This is followed by reviewing the evidence on the impact of nutritional counseling and supplements on healthcare utilization/costs. The third part concentrates on cost-effectiveness and the fourth part gives suggestions for future research.