Presence of DR and ME, visual acuity impairment and patient co-morbidities lead to significant impairment of both the physical and mental components of HRQOL.
Sepsis is a systemic response to severe infection in critically ill patients and is among the most frequent causes of death in intensive care medicine. Every year between 44,000 and 95,000 persons suffer from this illness in Germany. With the help of a retrospective electronic chart analysis in three adult ICUs of three university hospitals we calculated by a bottom-up approach the direct costs of these patients yielding per patient costs of 23,297 euros on average. Linking the direct costs per patient with the incidence data, the total direct costs for severe sepsis in Germany per year were estimated to range from 1,025 to 2,214 million euros. Direct costs, however, were found to make up only about 28% of the burden of disease of severe sepsis. The indirect costs range between 2,622 and 5,660 million euros. Productivity loss due to premature death does account for the largest part of the indirect costs. In conclusion, severe sepsis imposes annual costs between 3,647 and 7,874 million euros to the German society.
BackgroundEvidence-based medicine, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG), support the inclusion of patients' preferences in health care decisions. In fact there are not many trials which include an assessment of patient's preferences. The aim of this study is to demonstrate that preferences of physicians and of patients can be assessed and that this information may be helpful for medical decision making.MethodOne of the established methods for assessment of preferences is the conjoint analysis. Conjoint analysis, in combination with a computer assisted telephone interview (CATI), was used to collect data from 827 diabetes patients and 60 physicians, which describe the preferences expressed as levels of four factors in the management and outcome of the disease. The first factor described the main treatment effect (reduction of elevated HbA1c, improved well-being, absence of side effects, and no limitations of daily life). The second factor described the effect on the body weight (gain, no change, reduction). The third factor analyzed the mode of application (linked to meals or flexible application). The fourth factor addressed the type of product (original brand or generic product). Utility values were scaled and normalized in a way that the sum of utility points across all levels is equal to the number of attributes (factors) times 100.ResultsThe preference weights confirm that the reduction of body weight is at least as important for patients - especially obese patients - and physicians as the reduction of an elevated HbA1c. Original products were preferred by patients while general practitioners preferred generic products.ConclusionUsing the example of diabetes, the difference between patients' and physicians' preferences can be assessed. The use of a conjoint analysis in combination with CATI seems to be an effective approach for generation of data which are needed for policy and medical decision making in health care.
BackgroundDecisions on palliative chemotherapy (CT) for locally advanced or metastatic gastric cancer (mGC) require trade-offs between potential benefits and risks for patients. Healthcare providers and payers agree that patient-preferences should be considered. We conducted a choice-based conjoint (CBC) analysis study in pre-treated patients from Germany with mGC or locally advanced or metastatic adenocarcinoma of the gastroesophageal junction (mGEJ-Ca), to evaluate their preferences when hypothetically selecting a CT regimen.MethodsGerman oncologists and gastroenterologists were contacted to identify patients with mGC or mGEJ-Ca who had completed ≥2 cycles of palliative CT in first or later lines of therapy (CT ongoing or complete). The primary objective was to quantify patient preferences for palliative CT by CBC analysis. Six in-depth qualitative interviews identified 3 attributes: treatment tolerability, quality of life in terms of ability of self-care, and additional survival benefit. The CBC matrix was constructed with 4 factor levels per attribute and each participant was presented with 15 different iterations of these levels. A minimum of 50 participants was needed. Consenting patients completed the CBC survey, choosing systematically among profiles. CBC models were estimated by multinomial logistic regression (MLR) and hierarchical Bayesian (HB) analysis. Estimates of importance for each attribute and factor-level were calculated.ResultsFifty-five patients participated in the CBC survey (78.2% male, median age 63 years, 81.8% currently receiving CT). Across this sample, low treatment toxicity was ranked highest (44.6% relative importance, MLR analysis), followed by ability to self-care (32.3%), and an additional survival benefit of up to 3 months (3 months 23.1%, 2 months 18.3%, 1 month 11.2%). The MLR analysis showed high validity (certainty 37.9%, chi square p < 0.01, root-likelihood 0.505). The HB analysis yielded similar results.ConclusionsPatients’ preferences related to a new hypothetical palliative CT of mGC or mGEJ-Ca can be assessed by CBCanalysis. Although in real-life, patients initially need to decide on CT before they have any experience, and patients’ varied experiences with CT will have impacted specific responses, low toxicity and self-care ability were considered as most important by this group of patients with mGC or mGEJ-Ca.
Second-generation atypical antipsychotics such as clozapine, olanzapine, risperidone, quetiapine, ziprasidone, amisulpride and ariprazole offer the potential to reduce the significant health care resource demands in the treatment of schizophrenia through improved levels of initial clinical response and reduced levels of long-term acute relapse. However, the optimal sequencing of these drugs remains unclear. To consider this issue from a health economic viewpoint a decision model approach was used comparing healthcare costs and clinical outcomes when treating patients with alternative sequences of atypical antipsychotic treatment. Treated patients were assumed to be in a current acute episode with at least a 10-year history of disease and to be naive to previous atypical treatments. Treatment strategies were based on either first-line olanzapine or risperidone with switching to the alternative drug as second-line treatment following an inadequate clinical response to first-line drug therapy. Clinical response data were derived from a pivotal published comparative study of both olanzapine and risperidone. Published data on the long-term use of antipsychotic drugs where used wherever possible to populate the model for relapse rates during the maintenance phase. Health care resource data were defined for Germany based on expert clinical opinion. A treatment strategy of first-line olanzapine was shown to be cost saving over a 1-year period, with additional clinical benefits in the form of avoided relapses. The model suggests that over the first year of treatment a strategy of first-line olanzapine is associated with lower risk of additional relapse (0.33 fewer acute relapses per 100 patients per year) and with cost savings (euro 35,306 per 100 patients per year). There is a need for longer term direct in-trial comparisons of atypical antipsychotics to confirm these indicative results.
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