Health economic modeling for Alzheimer's disease: Expert perspectives

Abstract

The successful development of an economic model for the evaluation of future Alzheimer's disease (AD) interventions is critical to accurately inform policy makers and payers. As our understanding of AD expands, this becomes an increasingly complex and challenging goal. Advances in diagnostic techniques for AD and the prospect of disease‐modifying treatments raise an urgent need to define specifications for future economic models and to ensure that the necessary data to populate them are available. This Perspective article provides expert opinions from health economists and governmental agency representatives on how future economic models for AD might be structured, validated, and reported. We aim to stimulate much‐needed discussion about the detailed specification of future health economic models for AD.

Cost‐effectiveness models for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias: IPECAD modeling workshop cross‐comparison challenge

“…The AD models published to date have been subject to extensive critical appraisal and have been discussed in terms of methods, data, and reporting standards. [1][2][3][4][5][6] Recurring themes are limitations in representing the natural history of AD and a lack of empirical evidence for extrapolating trial (cognition) outcomes to long-term outcomes (e.g., function, care needs, and mortality). In addition, real-world data on the natural progression across the disease spectrum and across various outcomes (cognition, function, and behavior) are limited, as well as the utility and costs data to associated with these outcomes.…”

“…The AD models published to date have been subject to extensive critical appraisal and have been discussed in terms of methods, data, and reporting standards 1–6 . Recurring themes are limitations in representing the natural history of AD and a lack of empirical evidence for extrapolating trial (cognition) outcomes to long‐term outcomes (e.g., function, care needs, and mortality).…”

Dementia and cognitive impairment in French-speaking Sub-Saharan Africa: a comprehensive review on moving out of the shadows of neglect

“…Future studies should address the direct costs of dementia in SSA, considering the implications for developing appropriate policies to improve the economic burdens of the patients and their families. The studies should also inform the potential to implement upcoming strategies aimed at disease outcome improvement and cost saving such as disease-modifying treatments [56], Quality Improvement Collaboratives (QICs) [57], and economic model development [58]. Such studies are particularly needed for early and young-onset dementias, which cause even more family and socio-economic consequences than late-onset dementias [59].…”

Associations of Alzheimer’s disease with inpatient hospital costs and with quality-adjusted life years: Evidence from conventional and Mendelian randomization analyses in the UK Biobank

“…Our principal data source was the prospective UK Biobank cohort (research ethics approval reference 11/NW/0382), which recruited over 500,000 people between 2006 and 2010 from 22 centres across England, Scotland, and Wales (6)(7–9).…”

“…A key consideration for any intervention is cost-effectiveness, which is a function of the costs, quality-of life, and mortality impacts associated with both the disease and intervention under consideration. There have been relatively few economic evaluations of interventions for Alzheimer’s disease in comparison to other diseases, meaning that informed decisions are challenged by lack of evidence on how interventions affect these economics outcomes (5, 6). This type of evidence is particularly important for decision-analytic models of interventions for Alzheimer’s disease.…”