BACKGROUND One of the most unexpected outcomes arising from the efforts towards maternal and child mortality reduction is that all too often the objective success has been coupled with increased inequity in the population. The aim of this study is to analyze the determinants of the complex interplay between cost-effectiveness and equity and suggest strategies that will promote an impact on mort...

Economic evaluations in cancer have become increasingly important because of the rising incidence of the disease and the proliferation of effective therapies. The aging of the population and the increasing costs of care make it even more important to identify those treatments of greatest value from both an effectiveness and cost perspective. Economic research can be conducted at the "macro" lev...

OBJECTIVE Cancer risk increases with age, creating a challenge for the Chinese health system. To inform public health policy and research, we evaluated the cancer burden in elderly Chinese. METHODS Based on the published Chinese Cancer Registry Annual Report or related literature and the China Population and Employment Statistics Yearbooks, we estimated the cancer burden of elderly Chinese, w...

BACKGROUND The Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) is a pioneering attempt to improve the quality of primary care in the UK through the use of financial rewards. Despite its achievements, there are concerns that the QOF may offer poor value for money. AIM To assess the cost-effectiveness of QOF payments. DESIGN OF STUDY Economic analysis. SETTING England, UK. METHOD Cost-effectiveness ...

Erratum Background The INTEGRATE study investigates the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a “Personalized Prevention Approach for Cardiometabolic risk” (PPA CMR). This is a combination of an online risk estimation as used in the Dutch guideline ‘the Prevention consultation’ (Dutch PC-guideline) [1] and a tailored lifestyle intervention. The different steps of PPA CMR are described in our ...

BACKGROUND Methods for appropriate costing in Cost-effectiveness analyses (CEAs), seemingly straightforward, have always raised questions. Questions linger about what cost components to include under a "societal" perspective, as well as how to value resources. OBJECTIVES This article discusses issues surrounding costing and "perspective" in published CEA. METHODS I examine data from the Tuf...

The paper considers how primary care trusts (PCTs), which are relatively new organisations in the UK health service, might respond to the health hazards associated with radon in domestic properties. To this end, the cost-effectiveness of radon remediation programmes in four primary care trusts is calculated and compared with those of other interventions that can avert and treat lung cancer. The...

OBJECTIVES To examine the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of two primary care based interventions aimed at increasing breast screening uptake for women who had recently failed to attend. SETTING 13 General practices with low uptake in the second round of breast screening (below 60%) in north west London and the West Midlands, United Kingdom. Participants were women in these practices who...

Falls are a major health concern for elderly people and cause substantial health care costs. The authors used meta-analytic findings on the effectiveness of fall prevention interventions to determine cost-effectiveness of a proposed Medicare fall prevention program for people who experience a recent fall. Using published clinical trial data, the authors constructed a population-based economic m...

BACKGROUND In Uganda, the main stay for provision of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) has been at health facilities. Home based VCT on the other hand, was initiated in the country to improve service coverage. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the cost effectiveness of facility- and home-based HIV VCT strategies in rural southwestern Uganda. METHODS Data on costs...