BACKGROUND Asthma education and action plans (AP) have been recognized as important components in the optimal management of asthma. Studies have differed on the importance of a peak flow-based self-management plans in reducing health care costs and use due to asthma exacerbation. OBJECTIVE To analyze the cost-effectiveness of peak flow-based action plans in reducing costs associated with ER v...

OBJECTIVE Before cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) can fulfill its promise as a tool to guide health care allocation decisions, the method of incorporating societal values into CEA may need to be improved. DESIGN The study design was a declarative exposition of potential fallacies in the theoretical underpinnings of CEA. Two values held by many people-preferences for giving priority to severe...

Little research has been done to connect health promotion programs to outcomes in terms of life expectancy, health care costs and cost-effectiveness. For a policy maker, economic evaluation may be an important tool to support decisions on how to allocate the health care budget. The aim of this paper was to determine the cost-effectiveness of a Dutch school-based smoking education program. The i...

OBJECTIVES To describe the views of health care decision-makers and providers operating in the UK National Health Service (NHS) concerning the concepts of cost-effectiveness, equity and access through a series of attitudinal questions; to evaluate the preferences of health care providers in relation to each of these concepts using a discrete choice experiment (DCE); to assess the impact of prio...

BACKGROUND International health policy surveys are used to compare and evaluate health system performance, but little is known about the effects of non-response. The objective of this study was to assess the effects of non-response in the Norwegian part of the Commonwealth Fund international health policy survey in 2009. METHODS As part of an international health policy survey in 2009 a cross...

OBJECTIVES The UK's National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has an explicit cost-effectiveness threshold for deciding whether or not services are to be provided in the National Health Service (NHS), but there is currently little evidence to support the level at which it is set. This study examines whether it is possible to obtain such evidence by examining decision making el...

The need to focus healthcare expenditures on innovative and sustainable health systems that efficiently use existing effective therapies are the major drivers stimulating Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) across the globe. Lack of adequate access and high cost of essential medicines and technologies in many countries increases morbidity and mortality and cost of care that forces people a...

Community health partnerships have increased in popularity, but their effectiveness is often not evaluated. Through secondary data analysis, this study evaluates a program that offered access to legal services to address health-related issues, such as Medicaid reimbursement, Social Security benefits, medication coverage, and divorce. Based on the analysis reimbursements to expenditures, the hea...