OBJECTIVE Schizophrenia is a highly disabling disease and is costly to treat. We set out to establish what are the most cost-effective interventions applicable to developing regions and countries. METHODS Analysis was undertaken at the level of three WHO subregions spanning the Americas, Africa and South-East Asia, and subsequently in three member states (Chile, Nigeria and Sri Lanka). A stat...

There is a growing conviction among policy-makers that the availability of adequate numbers of well-trained and motivated human resources is a key determinant of health system' s capacity to achieve their health, responsiveness and fairness-improving goals. The objective of this study was to estimate the cost, effectiveness and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios of various distance-education...

BACKGROUND Many guidelines recommend screening mammography every 1-2 years for women older than 40 years; more than 70% of women now participate in routine screening. No studies have examined the societal impact of screening practices over the past decade in the United States on costs and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs). We performed a retrospective cost-effectiveness analysis comparing act...

OBJECTIVE To determine the cost effectiveness of several cervical cancer screening strategies utilizing HPV testing in South Africa. METHODS We developed a lifetime Markov model of the costs, quality of life, and survival associated with screening and treating cervical cancer and its precursors. Screening strategies evaluated included: 1) conventional cytology, 2) cytology followed by HPV tes...

Early intervention with budesonide is an effective strategy for mild persistent asthma, which has been shown to provide additional clinical benefits at a low incremental cost using USA cost data. The present authors analysed whether this strategy would be cost-effective using cost data for other countries. Based on the 3-yr prospective, randomised, double-blind inhaled Steroid Treatment As Regu...

abstractgiven the importance of the notion of efficiency in the country's economic growth, measuring the efficiency and the technology gap for various industries in order to achieve the best possible resource assignment, following the declared policy goals, is of particular importance for those countries, such as iran, which are now at the early stages of the industrialization process. hen...

BACKGROUND This study aimed at providing information for priority setting in the health care sector of Zimbabwe as well as assessing the efficiency of resource use. A general approach proposed by the World Bank involving the estimation of the burden of disease measured in Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) and calculation of cost-effectiveness ratios for a large number of health interventio...

Annual direct costs for cancer care are projected to rise — from $104 billion in 20061 to over $173 billion in 2020 and beyond.2 This increase has been driven by a dramatic rise in both the cost of therapy3 and the extent of care.4 In the United States, the sales of anticancer drugs are now second only to those of drugs for heart disease, and 70% of these sales come from products introduced in ...

OBJECTIVE Effectiveness differences between outpatient pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) treatment regimens are uncertain, but significant differences in cost exist. GOAL To examine the influence of antibiotic costs on PID therapy cost-effectiveness. STUDY DESIGN The authors used a Markov decision model to estimate the cost-effectiveness of recommended antibiotic regimens for PID and perfor...

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...