economic evaluation Flashcards
Why economic evaluations?
- mainly efficiency arguments: does it provide value for money to implement a certain intervention?
- resources for healthcare are scarce, so we need to make choices!
definition economic evaluation
- a systematic comparison of the costs and effects of two or more treatments –> do costs weigh up the extra benefits? –> Is intervention the best way to spend our money?
- not necessarily the cheapest, but “best value” –> it is okay to pay more if additional benefits way up additional costs
what do we need to measure in an economic evaluation?
- costs
2. effects
what is the aim in economic evaluations?
informing resource allocation decisions/ healthcare policy makers, more interested in effectiveness (than efficacy)
4 types of economic evaluations
- cost-minimization analysis
- cost-effectiveness analysis
- cost-utility analysis
- cost-benefit analysis
- -> determined by effect outcome that you look at
cost-minimization analysis
- we assume that effects equal (but also clinical relevant equally?)
- identification of intervention with lowest costs
- strictly speaking not a full economic evaluation: because we don’t look at outcomes
cost-effectiveness analysis
- disease specific outcome measures
- life-years gained
- quality of life
cost-effectiveness analysis
1. disease specific outcome measures
e. g. severity of depressive symptoms
- no comparison possible with other disorders
- relevant for health care providers
cost-effectiveness analysis
2. life-years gained
- hard to measure
- follow-up is not until you die
- we don’t expect that anxiety or a lot of other disorders contributes to life expectancy
- possible to compare all interventions that aim to extend life
- health has 2 aspects: duration and state
cost-effectiveness analysis
3. quality of life
- functioning, wellbeing, mental and physical, vitality… –> includes multiple domains
- when does a person improve? (some domains improved, some got worse, some stayed the same)
- hard to say
cost-utility analysis
- effects expressed in quality-adjusted life-years
- QALY= number of years in perfect health
- combination of quality and quantity of life
QALY graph
y-axis: QoL = death, 1 = perfect health
x-axis: duration of life (years)
QALY advantages
- not disease specific
- relevant for health care policy makers
- comparisons possible between all kinds of disorders and treatments
QALY Formel
QALY = V(Q) * Y
QALY negative values
- QoL is so bad, that you’d rather be dead