| 1. |
- Jarl, Johan, et al.
(författare)
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Medical net cost of low alcohol consumption - a cause to reconsider improved health as the link between alcohol and wage?
- 2009
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Ingår i: Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1478-7547. ; 7:17
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Studies have found a positive effect of low/moderate alcohol consumption on wages. This has often been explained by referring to epidemiological research showing that alcohol has protective effects on certain diseases, i.e., the health link is normally justified using selected epidemiological information. Few papers have tested this link between alcohol and health explicitly, including all diseases where alcohol has been shown to have either a protective or a detrimental effect.Aim: Based on the full epidemiological information, we study the effect of low alcohol consumption on health, in order to determine if it is reasonable to explain the positive effect of low consumption on wages using the epidemiological literature.Methods: We apply a non-econometrical cost-of-illness approach to calculate the medical care cost and episodes attributable to low alcohol consumption.Results: Low alcohol consumption carries a net cost for medical care and there is a net benefit only for the oldest age group (80+). Low alcohol consumption also causes more episodes in medical care then what is saved, although inpatient care for women and older men show savings. Conclusion: Using health as an explanation in the alcohol-wage literature appears invalid when applying the full epidemiological information instead of selected information.
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| 2. |
- Haghparast-Bidgoli, Hassan, et al.
(författare)
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Do economic evaluation studies inform effective healthcare resource allocation in Iran? A critical review of the literature.
- 2014
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Ingår i: Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1478-7547. ; 12:Jul 11
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- To aid informed health sector decision-making, data from sufficient high quality economic evaluations must be available to policy makers. To date, no known study has analysed the quantity and quality of available Iranian economic evaluation studies. This study aimed to assess the quantity, quality and targeting of economic evaluation studies conducted in the Iranian context. The study systematically reviewed full economic evaluation studies (n = 30) published between 1999 and 2012 in international and local journals. The findings of the review indicate that although the literature on economic evaluation in Iran is growing, these evaluations were of poor quality and suffer from several major methodological flaws. Furthermore, the review reveals that economic evaluation studies have not addressed the major health problems in Iran. While the availability of evidence is no guarantee that it will be used to aid decision-making, the absence of evidence will certainly preclude its use. Considering the deficiencies in the data identified by this review, current economic evaluations cannot be a useful source of information for decision makers in Iran. To improve the quality and overall usefulness of economic evaluations we would recommend; 1) developing clear national guidelines for the conduct of economic evaluations, 2) highlighting priority areas where information from such studies would be most useful and 3) training researchers and policy makers in the calculation and use of economic evaluation data.
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| 3. |
- Pervin, Tanjima, et al.
(författare)
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Societal costs of air pollution-related health hazards: a review of methods and results
- 2008
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Ingår i: Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1478-7547. ; 6:19
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper aims to provide a critical and systematic review of the societal costs of air pollutionrelated ill health (CAP), to explore methodological issues that may be important when assessing or comparing CAP across countries and to suggest ways in which future CAP studies can be made more useful for policy analysis. The methodology includes a systematic search based on the major electronic databases and the websites of a number of major international organizations. Studies are categorized by origin – OECD countries or non-OECD countries – and by publication status. Seventeen studies are included, eight from OECD countries and nine from non-OECD countries. A number of studies based on the ExternE methodology and the USA studies conducted by the Institute of Transportation are also summarized and discussed separately. The present review shows that considerable societal costs are attributable to air pollution-related health hazards. Nevertheless, given the variations in the methodologies used to calculate the estimated costs (e.g. cost estimation methods and cost components included), and inter-country differences in demographic composition and health care systems, it is difficult to compare CAP estimates across studies and countries. To increase awareness concerning the air pollution-related burden of disease, and to build links to health policy analyses, future research efforts should be directed towards theoretically sound and comprehensive CAP estimates with use of rich data. In particular, a more explicit approach should be followed to deal with uncertainties in the estimations. Along with monetary estimates, future research should also report all physical impacts and source-specific cost estimates, and should attempt to estimate 'avoidable cost' using alternative counterfactual scenarios.
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| 4. |
- Baltussen, Rob, et al.
(författare)
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Balancing efficiency, equity and feasibility of HIV treatment in South Africa : development of programmatic guidance
- 2013
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Ingår i: Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation. - : BioMed Central (BMC). - 1478-7547. ; 11:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- South Africa, the country with the largest HIV epidemic worldwide, has been scaling up treatment since 2003 and is rapidly expanding its eligibility criteria. The HIV treatment programme has achieved significant results, and had 1.8 million people on treatment per 2011. Despite these achievements, it is now facing major concerns regarding (i) efficiency: alternative treatment policies may save more lives for the same budget; (ii) equity: there are large inequalities in who receives treatment; (iii) feasibility: still only 52% of the eligible population receives treatment.Hence, decisions on the design of the present HIV treatment programme in South Africa can be considered suboptimal. We argue there are two fundamental reasons to this. First, while there is a rapidly growing evidence-base to guide priority setting decisions on HIV treatment, its included studies typically consider only one criterion at a time and thus fail to capture the broad range of values that stakeholders have. Second, priority setting on HIV treatment is a highly political process but it seems no adequate participatory processes are in place to incorporate stakeholders' views and evidences of all sorts.We propose an alternative approach that provides a better evidence base and outlines a fair policy process to improve priority setting in HIV treatment. The approach integrates two increasingly important frameworks on health care priority setting: accountability for reasonableness (A4R) to foster procedural fairness, and multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) to construct an evidence-base on the feasibility, efficiency, and equity of programme options including trade-offs. The approach provides programmatic guidance on the choice of treatment strategies at various decisions levels based on a sound conceptual framework, and holds large potential to improve HIV priority setting in South Africa.
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| 5. |
- Bolin, Kristian, et al.
(författare)
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The cost-effectiveness of growth hormone replacement therapy (Genotropin®) in hypopituitary adults in Sweden
- 2013
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Ingår i: Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1478-7547. ; 11:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of growth hormone (GH) treatment (Genotropin®) compared with no GH treatment in adults with GH deficiency in a Swedish societal setting.Methods: A Markov-type cost-utility simulation model was constructed and used to simulate, for men and women, morbidity and mortality for GH-treated and -untreated individuals over a 20-year period. The calculations were performed using current available prices concerning morbidity-related healthcare costs and costs for Genotropin®. All costs and treatment effects were discounted at 3%. Costs were expressed in Euro (1€ = 9.03 SEK). GH-treated Swedish patients (n = 434) were identified from the KIMS database (Pfizer International Metabolic Database) and untreated patients (n = 2135) from the Swedish Cancer Registry and the Hospital Discharge Registry.Results: The results are reported as incremental cost per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained, including both direct and indirect costs for GH-treated versus untreated patients. The weighted sum of all subgroup incremental cost per QALY was €15,975 and €20,241 for men and women, respectively. Including indirect cost resulted in lower cost per QALY gained: €11,173 and €10,753 for men and women, respectively. Key drivers of the results were improvement in quality of life, increased survival, and intervention cost.Conclusions: The incremental cost per QALY gained is moderate when compared with informal thresholds applied in Sweden. The simulations suggest that GH-treatment is cost-effective for both men and women at the €55,371 (SEK 500,000 - the informal Swedish cost-effectiveness threshold) per QALY threshold. © 2013 Bolin et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
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| 6. |
- Feldman, Inna, et al.
(författare)
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Heterogeneity in cost-effectiveness of lifestyle counseling for metabolic syndrome risk groups -primary care patients in Sweden
- 2013
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Ingår i: Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1478-7547. ; 11, s. 19-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND:Clinical trials have indicated that lifestyle interventions for patients with lifestyle-related cardiovascular and diabetes risk factors (the metabolic syndrome) are cost-effective. However, patient characteristics in primary care practice vary considerably, i.e. they exhibit heterogeneity in risk factors. The cost-effectiveness of lifestyle interventions is likely to differ over heterogeneous patient groups.METHODS:Patients (62 men, 80 women) in the Kalmar Metabolic Syndrome Program (KMSP) in primary care (Kalmar regional healthcare area, Sweden) were divided into three groups reflecting different profiles of metabolic risk factors (low, middle and high risk) and gender. A Markov model was used to predict future cardiovascular disease and diabetes, including complications (until age 85 years or death), with health effects measured as QALYs and costs from a societal perspective in Euro (EUR) 2012, discounted 3%. Simulations with risk factor levels at start and at 12 months follow-up were performed for each group, with an assumed 4-year sustainability of intervention effects.RESULTS:The program was estimated cost-saving for middle and high risk men, while the incremental cost vs. do-nothing varied between EUR 3,500 -- 18,000 per QALY for other groups. There is heterogeneity in the cost-effectiveness over the risk groups but this does not affect the overall conclusion on the cost-effectiveness of the KMSP. Even the highest ICER (for high risk women) is considered moderately cost-effective in Sweden. The base case result was not sensitive to alternative data and methodology but considerably affected by sustainability assumptions. Alternative risk stratifications did not change the overall conclusion that KMSP is cost-effective. However, simple grouping with average risk factor levels over gender groups overestimate the cost-effectiveness.CONCLUSIONS:Lifestyle counseling to prevent metabolic diseases is cost-effective in Swedish standard primary care settings. The use of risk stratification in the cost-effectiveness analysis established that the program was cost-effective for all patient groups, even for those with very high levels of lifestyle-related risk factors for the metabolic syndrome diseases. Heterogeneity in the cost-effectiveness of lifestyle interventions in primary care patients is expected, and should be considered in health policy decisions.
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| 7. |
- Gyllensvärd, Harald
(författare)
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Cost-effectiveness of injury prevention - a systematic review of municipality based interventions.
- 2010
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Ingår i: Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1478-7547. ; 8, s. 17-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Injuries are a major cause of mortality and morbidity which together result in avoidable societal costs. Due to limited resources, injury prevention interventions need to demonstrate cost-effectiveness to justify their implementation. However, the existing knowledge in this area is limited. Consequently, a systematic review is needed to support decision-making and to assist in the targeting of future research. The aim of this review is to critically appraise the published economic evidence of injury prevention interventions at the municipal level. METHODS: A search strategy was developed to focus a literature search in PubMed, Embase, Cochrane and NHS EED. Studies were eligible for inclusion if they were economic evaluations of injury prevention interventions that could be implemented by municipalities; had a relevant comparison group; did not include any form of medication or drug use; and were assessed as having at least an acceptable quality from an economic point of view. Articles were screened in three steps. In the final step, studies were critically appraised using a check-list based on Drummond's check-list for assessing economic evaluations. RESULTS: Of 791 potential articles 20 were accepted for inclusion. Seven studies showed net savings; four showed a cost per health score gained; six showed both savings and a cost per health score gained but for different time horizons and populations; and three showed no effect. The interventions targeted a range of areas such as traffic safety, fire safety, hip fractures, and sport injuries. One studied a multi-targeted community-based program. Only six articles used effectiveness data generated within the study. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that there are injury prevention interventions that offer good use of societal resources. However, there is a lack of economic evidence surrounding injury prevention interventions. This lack of evidence needs to be met by further research about the economic aspects of injury prevention interventions to improve the information available for decision-making.
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| 8. |
- Hagberg, Lars Axel, et al.
(författare)
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Measuring the time costs of exercise : a proposed measuring method and a pilot study
- 2010
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Ingår i: Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation. - : BioMed Central (BMC). - 1478-7547. ; 8, s. 9-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: The cost of time spent on exercise is an important factor in societal-perspective health economic analyses of interventions aimed at promoting physical activity. However, there are no existing measuring methods for estimating time costs. The aim of this article is to describe a way to measure the costs of time spent on physical activity. We propose a model for measuring these time costs, and present the results of a pilot study applying this model to different groups of exercisers.Methods: We began this investigation by developing a model for measuring the time spent on exercise, based on the most important theoretical frameworks for valuing time. In the model, the value of utility in anticipation (expected health benefits) of performing exercise is expressed in terms of health-related quality of life. With this approach, the cost of the time spent on exercise is defined as the value of utility in use of leisure activity forgone minus the value of utility in use of exercise. Utility in use for exercise is valued in comparison with utility in use for leisure activity forgone and utility in use for work.To put the model into practice, we developed a questionnaire with the aim of investigating the valuations made by exercisers, and applied this questionnaire among more experienced and less experienced exercisers.Results: Less experienced exercisers valued the time spent on exercise as being equal to 26% of net wages, while more experienced exercisers valued this time at 7% of net wages (p < 0.001). The higher time costs seen among the less experienced exercisers correlated to a less positive experience of exercise and a more positive experience of the lost leisure activity. There was a significant inverse correlation between the costs of time spent on exercise, and the frequency and duration of regular exercise.Conclusion: The time spent on exercise is an important factor in interventions aimed at promoting physical activity, and should be taken into consideration in cost-effectiveness analyses. The proposed model for measuring the costs of the time spent on exercise seems to be a better method than the previously-used assumptions of time costs.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Kim, Sung, et al.
(författare)
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Comparing the cost effectiveness of harm reduction strategies : a case study of the Ukraine
- 2014
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Ingår i: Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1478-7547. ; 12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BackgroundHarm reduction strategies commonly include needle and syringe programmes (NSP), opioid substitution therapy (OST) and interventions combining these two strategies. Despite the proven effectiveness of harm-reduction strategies in reducing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection among injecting drug users (IDUs), no study has compared the cost-effectiveness of these interventions, nor the incremental cost effectiveness of combined therapy. Using data from the Global Fund, this study compares the cost-effectiveness of harm reduction strategies in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, using the Ukraine as a case study.MethodsA Markov Monte Carlo simulation is carried out using parameters from the literature and cost data from the Global Fund. Effectiveness is presented as both QALYs and infections averted. Costs are measured in 2011 US dollars.ResultsThe Markov Monte Carlo simulation estimates the cost-effectiveness ratio per infection averted as $487.4 [95% CI: 488.47-486.35] in NSP and $1145.9 [95% CI: 1143.39-1148.43] in OST. Combined intervention is more costly but more effective than the alternative strategies with a cost effectiveness ratio of $851.6[95% CI: 849.82-853.55].The ICER of the combined strategy is $1086.9/QALY [95% CI: 1077.76:1096.24] compared with NSP, and $461.0/infection averted [95% CI: 452.98:469.04] compared with OST. These results are consistent with previous studies.ConclusionsDespite the inherent limitations of retrospective data, this study provides evidence that harm-reduction interventions are a cost-effective way to reduce HIV prevalence. More research on into cost effectiveness in different settings, and the availability of fiscal space for government uptake of programmes, is required.
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