An Economic Evaluation of Asthma Action Plans for Children with Asthma

Abstract

The costs and effectiveness of asthma action plans for children were evaluated in a cross-sectional economic analysis. Direct health care and indirect costs, nights with symptoms, and asthma attacks were measured in 879 Ontario children with asthma. From a societal perspective, the total annual costs of the asthma action plan and the control groups were CDN$6, 948 and CDN$6, 140 per patient, respectively. Health outcomes were similar. The difference in cost was attributable to greater medication and health services use in the intervention group. Prospective randomized trials are necessary to measure potential improvements in control of asthma using asthma action plans.

Health economics of asthma: assessing the value of asthma interventions

“…In an analysis of two asthma care strategies compared to usual care Sullivan et al (28) reported ICERs without making an assumption of the willingnessto-pay. Finally, an asthma management intervention was found to have higher costs, but comparable benefits compared to standard-of-care and therefore, were not deemed cost-effective (35). A statement disclosing the source of funding for the study was reported in 33 of the 40 studies (QHES item 16).…”

“…Of the 14 policy evaluations six considered the economic effects of implementing an education program (22,24,25,28,30,32). Other studies evaluated management programs (23,26,29,33,35), guidelines (27), and surveillance (31,34). All 26 of the pharmaceutical comparisons were of controller medications.…”

“…Tables 1-4 contain detailed information on each of the economic evaluations organized by their intervention of interest: policy interventions (Table 1), monotherapy controller medications (Table 2), combination controller medications (Table 3), and add-on medications (Table 4). Of the 40 papers that we reviewed, 14 evaluated a policy intervention (22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35) and the other 26 were pharmaceutical comparisons . Of the 14 policy evaluations six considered the economic effects of implementing an education program (22,24,25,28,30,32).…”

“…Namely, most well designed education based interventions are considered good value for money by their authors, but it is often difficult to put into practice such policy interventions. Polisena et al found that their studied asthma action plan was associated with greater costs compared to a control group without demonstrating superior outcomes (35). Polisena et al called for further research to understand the most cost-effective asthma education method for children given the participation of parents as proxy reporters and educators.…”

Economic Evaluation of Enhanced Asthma Management: A Systematic Review

“…The majority of the studies originated from the United States of America7,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54, followed by Europe8,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67, Asia68-72, and Australia 73,7475,76. There was one economic evaluation concerning enhanced asthma management30 done in 1991, and at least one between 1994 and 2012.…”