Economic Evaluation of Glucosamine in Knee Osteoarthritis Treatments in Vietnam.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the degeneration of cartilage in joints that results in bones rubbing against each other; it causes uncomfortable symptoms such as pain, swelling, and stiffness and can lead to disability. It usually occurs in the elderly and causes a large medical burden. The aim of this study is to evaluate the cost-effectiveness between the standard treatment for osteoarthritis and standard treatment with added crystalline glucosamine sulfate at various stages. Markov analysis modeling was applied to evaluate the effect of both adding glucosamine compared to standard treatment from a societal perspective during whole patients' lifetimes. Data input was collected from reviews in previous studies. The outcome was measured in quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), and the Incremental Cost-Effectiveness Ratio (ICER) from a societal perspective was applied with 3% and discounted for all costs and outcomes. One-way analysis via the Tornado diagram was performed to investigate the change in factors in the model. In general, adding glucosamine into the standard treatment proved to be more cost-effective compared to the standard treatment. Particularly, the early-stage addition of glucosamine in the treatment was cost-effective compared to the post-stage addition of glucosamine. The addition of supplementing crystalline glucosamine sulfate to the whole regimen at any stage was cost-effective at the willingness-to-pay (WTP) threshold.

Cost-Effectiveness of Glucosamine in Osteoarthritis Treatment: A Systematic Review.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic condition that most frequently affects older adults. It is currently the most common disability. The cost of treating an aging population places pressure on the healthcare budget. As a result, it is imperative to evaluate medicines' cost-effectiveness and, accordingly, their influence on health resource allocation. Our study aims to summarize the cost and outcome of utilizing glucosamine in OA treatment. Databases like Medline, Cochrane, and Scopus were searched as part of the identification process up until April 2023. Our primary inclusion criteria centered on the economic evaluation of glucosamine in OA treatments, providing an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER). The Quality of Health Economic Studies (QHES) instrument was applied to grade the quality of the studies. Seven qualified studies that discussed the cost-effectiveness of glucosamine with or without other formulations were selected. All of them demonstrated that glucosamine was cost-effective. There was an increase in quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) when incorporating glucosamine in conventional care. Moreover, patented crystalline glucosamine sulfate (pCGS) was more cost-effective than the other formulations of glucosamine (OFG). Overall, utilizing pCGS was more beneficial than using OFG in terms both of cost and quality of life.

Effectiveness and Safety of Glucosamine in Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review.

Knee osteoarthritis is the most popular type of osteoarthritis that causes extreme pain in the elderly. Currently, there is no cure for osteoarthritis. To lessen clinical symptoms, glucosamine was suggested. The primary goal of our systematic review study is to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of glucosamine based on recent studies. Electronic databases such as PubMed, Scopus, and Cochrane were used to assess the randomized controlled trial (RCT). From the beginning through March 2023, the papers were checked, and if they fulfilled the inclusion criteria, they were then examined. The Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis (WOMAC) and Visual Analog Scale (VAS) scales were considered the main outcome measures. A total of 15 studies were selected. Global pain was significantly decreased in comparison to placebo, as measured by the VAS index, with an overall effect size of standardized mean difference (SMD) of -7.41 ([95% CI] 14.31, 0.51). The WOMAC scale confirmed that pain, stiffness, and physical function had improved, however the effects were insufficient. A statistical update also revealed that there were no reports of serious medication interactions or significant adverse events. To summarize, glucosamine is more effective than a placebo at reducing pain in knee osteoarthritis patients. In long-term treatment, oral glucosamine sulfate 1500 mg/day is believed to be well tolerated.

Using Contingent Valuation Method to Estimate Adults' Willingness to Pay for a Future Coronavirus 2019 Vaccination.

OBJECTIVES: Vaccines are recognized as the most effective strategy for long-term prevention of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) because they can reduce morbidity and mortality. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate willingness to pay (WTP) for a future COVID-19 vaccination among young adults in Southern Vietnam. METHODS: A cross-sectional, descriptive, and analytic study was undertaken with data collected from a community-based survey in southern Vietnam for 2 weeks in May 2020. The contingent valuation method was used to estimate WTP for COVID-19 vaccine. The average amount that respondents were willing to pay for the vaccine was US$ 85.9 2 ± 69.01. RESULTS: We also found the differences in WTP according to sex, living area, monthly income, and the level of self-rated risk of COVID-19. CONCLUSION: Our findings possibly contribute to the implementation of a pricing policy when the COVID-19 vaccine is introduced in Vietnam.

Quality of Work Life in Healthcare: A Comparison of Medical Representatives and Hospital Pharmacists.

This study aims to access the quality of work-life and characteristics between medical representatives and hospital pharmacists to understand the current QWL status among these health workers. This research was led with a cross-sectional design conducted with a survey using the work-related quality of life scale-2. There were 296 medical representatives and 344 hospital pharmacists participating in this study. The results showed that medical representatives had better QWL scores than hospital pharmacists. This study suggests that governments and the international community should invest in workplace programs for pharmacists that improve their QWL.

Cancer classification from microarray data for genomic disorder research using optimal discriminant independent component analysis and kernel extreme learning machine.

One of the challenging tasks in the medicinal field is genomic disorder investigation and its classification from the microarray dataset. The microarray dataset reorganization and its classification is more complex and expensive in the biomedical research area due to the larger number of features in the microarray dataset. In this paper, we construct a hybrid feature selection method such as t test, Fisher ration, and Bayesian logistic regression to select genes and that reduce the time cost. Based on the features, the top-ranked features are selected via the best hybrid rank method. Thereafter, the features are extracted using the modified firefly optimization-based discriminant independent component analysis (MF-DICA). Especially, the modified firefly optimization algorithm is capable of improving the search efficiency of DICA. From the high dimensional microarray dataset, MF-DICA is used to obtain the best features within the entire search space. The kernel extreme learning machine classifies the gene features depending upon the most relevant class. Experimentally, six datasets namely Leukemia dataset, Diffuse Larger B-cell Lymphomas, Lung cancer, Breast cancer, Prostate tumor, and Colon dataset are chosen to evaluate the performance of proposed approaches. Finally, the experimental data demonstrate that the proposed method is well suitable to classify the microarray data.

Economic burden of eczema in a middle-income country: A public hospital-based retrospective study in 2016-2017 in Vietnam.

OBJECTIVES: Eczema, which is synonymous with atopic eczema, is classified as a complex, chronic, and relapsing inflammatory skin condition, affecting both adults and children. However, there has not been any research into health-care expenditure to evaluate the medical cost of eczema from patients' perspective in Vietnam. This retrospective study aimed to fill in the gap concerning the medical cost of eczema treatment from patients' perspective. METHODS: Data from Ho Chi Minh City Hospital of Dermato Venereology's electronic medical database on demographics and drug therapy from June 2016 to May 2017 were collected. The patients who met the study's criteria were included in the study and were then categorized as mild, moderate, and severe according to received treatment level. Bootstrapping methods were used to evaluate average and emphasized the difference of cost burden adjusted by factors. RESULTS: A total of 6,212 patients (52.1% women and 85% urban residents) participated in the study; they were divided into three groups according to treatment stage: mild (n = 3,159, 50.9%), moderate (n = 599, 9.6%), and severe (n = 2,454, 39.5%). The evaluated total cost for the three groups was 5,255.82, 1,064.03, and 5,8154.60 US dollars, respectively; the average expenditure per patient per year was around $12.11 ($11.63-12.59). CONCLUSIONS: The results suggested that the estimated direct medical cost of eczema treatment was much lower than that in the Western countries, mostly because of insurance coverage. The findings provide useful insights into health economic evaluations and treatment costs of eczema in Vietnam.

Cost-effectiveness of treating multidrug- and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis: A systematic review.

OBJECTIVE: Tuberculosis (TB), along with the human immunodeficiency virus, is one of the leading causes of death from infectious diseases. Its prevalence has rendered the treatment of drug-resistant TB a major public health problem that threatens the progress made in TB care and control worldwide. Our objectives were to conduct a systematic review of the cost-effectiveness of treatment for multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant TB (MDR-TB/XDR-TB) and to synthesise available data from scientific research. METHODS: Using English keywords, we searched for papers over reputable databases, such as Scopus, PubMed, Cochrane and Google Scholar, from Jan. 23 to Mar. 23, 2019. RESULTS: The search and screening yielded 13 articles, whose results were extracted and reviewed to draw conclusions on the cost-effectiveness of MDR-TB/XDR-TB treatment. The data extraction table used to cull and categorise the results comprised the characteristics of a given study, as well as its objectives, the perspectives used to guide the investigation, methods and results (outcome, sensitivity analysis). The measured outcome was the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio. CONCLUSIONS: The review indicated that MDR -TB/XDR-TB treatment can be very cost-effective in countries with low to high incomes, regardless of whether minimal or considerable disease burdens exist.

Assessing quality of life for multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis patients.

OBJECTIVE: One can hypothesize that Mycobacterium genus originated more than 150 million years ago and has evolved to become one of the leading lethal infectious diseases. Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) patients are directly affected by the disease and other subjective issues, such as related diseases, medical costs and social issues, which all have negative impacts on patient quality of life (QOL). Our purpose is to define the status of health-related QOL for international MDR-TB and XDR-TB patients. METHODS: Systematic review is a good method for searching and selecting related researches and articles. As such, we have searched for and cited related articles on reputable databases, such as PubMed, Cochrance, and Google Scholar. A data overview was performed to draw conclusions and results on the QOL of MDR-TB and XDR-TB patients. RESULTS: A total of 18 articles were included, using instruments from the World Health Organization, Euroqol, Short Form, AQ and the Seattle Obstructive Lung Disease Questionnaire. The QOL of MDR-TB and XDR-TB patients was found to be compromised due to the strong resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, economic pressure and community alienation. CONCLUSIONS: A number of QOL and health-related QOL studies on MDR-TB and XDR-TB patients are limited, especially with XDR-TB patients. Significant numbers of MDR-TB and XDR-TB patients still have sequelae after completing treatment, reducing the health-related QOL among these patients.

Cost-effectiveness of measles treatment: a systematic review.

OBJECTIVE: Measles is still common in many developing countries, and its outbreaks have been on the rise since 2009 even though the disease is almost entirely preventable through safe and effective vaccination. This paper aims to provide evidence about the systematic review of the cost-effectiveness of measles treatment in different regions worldwide. METHODS: The methodical search began on 10th January 2019 to look for all articles on the cost-effectiveness of measles treatment published from January 2019 to April 2019 in SCOPUS, Pubmed (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) and Cochrane (www.cochrane.org).We summarised the articles by using a data table to extract all information using health economic evaluation methods. RESULTS: We identified 14 articles from the 69 total articles searched. These articles showed favourable costeffectiveness or cost-benefit ratios in high- and middle-income countries based on data organised by World Bank Income Level in 2018: the United States, Canada, Japan, India and Zambia. However, research is still limited in lowincome countries and thus the effectiveness of vaccination programmes cannot be conclusively identified. CONCLUSIONS: This review shows the overview of the research in health economic evaluations of measles in different places, years and using different methods of intervention. Overall, it evaluates the cost-effectiveness of measles treatment.

Customers' preferences and willingness to pay for a future dengue vaccination: a study of the empirical evidence in Vietnam.

BACKGROUND: Dengue was endemic to Vietnam. Due to the lack of a readily available remedy, dengue vaccines (DV) have been used elsewhere to cure the disease. However, introducing DV in Vietnam has met resistance from society and the government, influencing decisions about willingness-to-pay (WTP) and other pharmacoeconomic studies. This research aimed to evaluate the extent to which Vietnamese customers would be willing to pay to vaccinate themselves and their children, if any at all, against dengue. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a cross-sectional interview-based research. Contingent valuation method, combined with the bidding technique and several open-ended questions, were used to obtain the maximum WTP values for six hypothetical scenarios of two types of DV (60% efficacy for 10 years, "Type 1" vs 90% efficacy for 20 years, "Type 2"). RESULTS: The median WTP per adult for Type 1 and Type 2 DV were US$130.34 and US$217.39, respectively. The median WTP rates per parent for their own vaccination were US$86.96 (Type 1) and US$156.52 (Type 2), for their children vaccination costs were US$108.70 (Type 1) and US$195.65 (Type 2). Five factors affected the WTP rates: monthly income, marital status, area, locality and level of education. CONCLUSION: The WTP rates for DV were high, supporting the introduction of DV in Vietnam.