Better health outcomes and reduced societal costs – both senior meetings and a preventive home visit result in cost-effective use of resources

• Health economic evaluations provide decision makers with information whether the health effects of one intervention come at a reasonable cost in relation to a comparator. The existing evidence indicate that health promotion for community-dwelling older people result in a range of positive health outcomes, but there is a general lack of health economic evaluation. The aim was to evaluate cost-effectiveness over 4 years of two health promoting interventions: senior meetings and a preventive home visit, in relation to no intervention. The study was based on a Markov model including five states defined in relation to level of dependency. The model included transitions between dependency states, scores for quality of life and societal costs for each state, intervention costs and intervention effects for two formats of health promoting interventions. For each intervention, we calculated the accumulated quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) and societal costs over 4 years, in relation to a no-intervention control group. In addition to presenting the results in terms of the cost per quality adjusted life years we also calculated return on investment (ROI), e.g., the ratio between net economic savings and the costs for each intervention. The results indicated that both senior meetings and a preventive home visit was cost-effective resulting in QALY gains and reduced societal costs at any follow-up and a high ROI. In relation to no intervention, senior meetings resulted in 0.054 QALYs gained, 2300 € in reduced societal costs and a ROI ratio of 14; a preventive home visit resulted in 0.048 QALYs gained, 2100 € in reduced societal costs and a ROI ratio of 29. The results indicate that implementation of these intervention can promote healthy ageing and thus, resources can be used for other interventions. In health economic evaluation, a comparison of health effects e.g., QALYs gained, in relation to costs is central. In the case of net savings, as was the case in this study, ROI provide an additional perspective focusing on the magnitude of effects on costs.

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Folkhälsovetenskap, global hälsa, socialmedicin och epidemiologi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology (hsv//eng)

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Hälso- och sjukvårdsorganisation, hälsopolitik och hälsoekonomi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Health Care Service and Management, Health Policy and Services and Health Economy (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Senior meetings

multi-professional

health economy

QALYs

Preventive home visit

Publikations- och innehållstyp

kon (ämneskategori)

ref (ämneskategori)