BACKGROUND Family members of patients with established long-QT syndrome (LQTS) often lack definitive clinical findings, yet may have inherited an LQTS mutation and be at risk of sudden death. Genetic testing can identify mutations in 75% of patients with LQTS, but genetic testing of family members remains controversial. METHODS AND RESULTS We used a Markov model to assess the cost-effectivene...

INTRODUCTION hospital malnutrition is a frequent worldwide problem and its potential issues related include increased complications, length of stay, mortality, and healthcare costs. OBJECTIVES the aim of this study was to establish the cost-effectiveness of early nutritional therapy for malnourished patients in a high complexity hospital. MATERIALS AND METHODS this analytical study with eco...

BACKGROUND Partner treatment is an important component of sexually transmitted disease control. Several randomized controlled trials have compared expedited partner treatment (EPT) to unassisted standard partner referral (SR). All of these trials found that EPT significantly increased partner treatment over SR, whereas some found that EPT significantly lowered reinfection rates in index patient...

OBJECTIVE To establish the cost-effectiveness of a bone-anchored hearing device (BAHD). To date, there has not been any formal economic analysis of this treatment. STUDY DESIGN A prospective cohort case-control analysis. SETTING Tertiary referral center, university hospital. PATIENTS Between April 2007 and June 2008, all adult patients undergoing their first BAHD were contacted and invite...

Quantitative research that aimed to identify the mean total cost (MTC) of connecting, maintaining and disconnecting patient-controlled analgesia pump (PCA) in the management of pain. The non-probabilistic sample corresponded to the observation of 81 procedures in 17 units of the Central Institute of the Clinics Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, University of Sao Paulo. We calculated the MTC multip...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the capacity implications and health economic impact of new guidelines recommending referral to colposcopy after one mild result during cervical screening rather than after two consecutive mild results. DESIGN A mathematical model of the country's colposcopy services and the clinical pathways from smear result through to treatment is constructed. The model incorporates n...

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES To determine the feasibility of individualized caregiver training for home care and symptom management conducted at the bedside of older patients with cancer prior to hospital discharge. DESIGN Pilot study. SETTING The Extended Care Rehabilitation Center at the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center in North Carolina. SAMPLE 7 female informal caregivers with a mean age ...

BACKGROUND Knowledge of treatment cost is essential in assessing cost effectiveness in healthcare. Evidence of the potential impact of implementing available interventions against childhood illnesses in developing countries challenges us to define the costs of treating these diseases. The purpose of this study is to describe the total costs associated with treatment of pneumonia, malaria and me...

This study determined the cost-effectiveness of one- versus two-stage hypertension screening at small to medium-sized blue collar, multicultural work sites using voluntary health organization and public health unit personnel. Workers with diastolic blood pressure (DBP) > or = 90 mm Hg were randomly allocated to one- or two-stage screening with differing physician referral protocols based on blo...

PURPOSE The efficacy of surgery in the postendoscopic management of low-risk malignant polyps is unclear. Although interobserver variability in the histological diagnosis was shown, its importance is unknown. The purpose of this study was to guide future research on the optimal strategy for low-risk polyps with the use of value-of-information analysis. METHODS A decision-analysis model was co...