Effects and determinants of tuberculosis drug stockouts in South Africa.

BACKGROUND: The frequent occurrence of medicine stockouts represents a significant obstacle to tuberculosis control in South Africa. Stockouts can lead to treatment alterations or interruptions, which can impact treatment outcomes. This study investigates the determinants and effects of TB drug stockouts and whether poorer districts are disproportionately affected. METHODS: TB stockout data, health system indicators and TB treatment outcomes at the district level were extracted from the District Health Barometer for the years 2011, 2012 and 2013. Poverty terciles were constructed using the Census 2011 data to investigate whether stockouts and poor treatment outcomes were more prevalent in more impoverished districts. Fixed-effects regressions were used to estimate the effects of TB stockouts on TB treatment outcomes. RESULTS: TB stockouts occurred in all provinces but varied across provinces and years. Regression analysis showed a significant association between district per capita income and stockouts: a 10% rise in income was associated with an 8.50% decline in stockout proportions. In terms of consequences, after controlling for unobserved time invariant heterogeneity between districts, a 10% rise in TB drug stockouts was found to lower the cure rate by 2.10% (p < 0.01) and the success rate by 1.42% (p < 0.01). These effects were found to be larger in poorer districts. CONCLUSIONS: The unequal spread of TB drug stockouts adds to the socioeconomic inequality in TB outcomes. Not only are stockouts more prevalent in poorer parts of South Africa, they also have a more severe impact on TB treatment outcomes in poorer districts. This suggests that efforts to cut back TB drug stockouts would not only improve TB treatment outcomes on average, they are also likely to improve equity because a disproportionate share of this burden is currently borne by the poorer districts.

Will you still need me, will you still feed me when I'm 64? The health impact of caregiving to one's spouse.

Informal care may substitute for formal long-term care that is often publicly funded or subsidized. The costs of informal caregiving are borne by the caregiver and may consist of worse health outcomes and, if the caregiver has not retired, worse labor market outcomes. We estimate the impact of providing informal care to one's partner on the caregiver's health using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe. We use statistical matching to deal with selection bias and endogeneity. We find that in the short run caregiving has a substantial effect on the health of caregivers and, for female caregivers, on their health care use. These effects should be taken into account when comparing the costs and benefits of formal and informal care provision. The health effects may, however, be short-lived, as we do not find any evidence that they persist after 4 or 7 years.

Effects of cost sharing on physician utilization under favourable conditions for supplier-induced demand.

The effects of cost sharing on the demand for ambulatory care in experimental circumstances are well understood since the Rand Health Insurance Experiment (HIE). However, in a non-experimental real-world context, supplier-induced demand of doctors might erode some of the significant negative out-of-pocket price elasticity identified in the HIE. Belgium is an interesting test case for this hypothesis because it has relatively high rates of patient cost sharing in its public health insurance system and a very high density of physicians, all remunerated fee-for-service. We have exploited the price variation generated by a substantial increase in patient co-payment rates in 1994 to estimate out-of-pocket price elasticities for three groups of users, and for three types of services using a fixed-effects model in levels and in differences. We obtain significant out-of-pocket price elasticities for the general population in the range from -0.39 to -0.28 for GP home visits, -0.16 to -0.12 for GP office visits and -0.10 for specialist visits. The estimates were generally lower and less significant for the groups of elderly and disabled. The differences we find in price responsiveness appear to be fairly robust and consistent with the HIE predictions. These results suggest that--at least in the short run--non-experimental utilization effects of cost sharing are very similar to the experimental evidence, even in a situation of favourable conditions for supplier-induced demand.

Income inequality and health: what does the literature tell us?

This paper reviews the large and growing body of literature on the apparently negative effects of income inequality on population health. Various hypotheses are identified and described that explain the empirically observed association between measures of income inequality and population health. We have concluded that data from aggregate-level studies of the effect of income inequality on health, i.e. studies at the population and community (e.g. state) levels, are largely insufficient to discriminate between competing hypotheses. Only individual-level studies have the potential to discriminate between most of the advanced hypotheses. The relevant individual-level studies to date, all on U.S. population data, provide strong support for the "absolute-income hypothesis," no support for the "relative-income hypothesis," and little or no support for the "income-inequality hypothesis." Results that provide some support for the income-inequality hypothesis suggest that income inequality at the state level affects mainly the health of the poor. There is only indirect evidence for the "deprivation hypothesis," and no evidence supports the "relative-position hypothesis." Overall, the absolute-income hypothesis, although > 20 years old, is still the most likely to explain the frequently observed strong association between population health and income inequality levels.

Income-related health inequality in Canada.

This study uses data from the 1994 National Population Health Survey and applies the methods developed by Wagstaff and van Doorslaer (1994, measuring inequalities in health in the presence of multiple-category morbidity indicators. Health Economics 3, 281-291) to measure the degree of income-related inequality in self-reported health in Canada by means of concentration indices. It finds that significant inequalities in self-reported ill-health exist and favour the higher income groups--the higher the level of income, the better the level of self-assessed health. The analysis also indicates that lower income individuals are somewhat more likely to report their self-assessed health as poor or less-than-good than higher income groups, at the same level of a more 'objective' health indictor such as the McMaster Health Utility Index. The degree of inequality in 'subjective' health is slightly higher than in 'objective' health, but not significantly different. The degree of inequality in self-assessed health in Canada was found to be significantly higher than that reported by van Doorslaer et al. (1997, income related inequalities in health: some international comparisons, Journal of Health Economics 16, 93-112) for seven European countries, but not significantly different from the health inequality measured for the UK or the US. It also appears as if Canada's health inequality is higher than what would be expected on the basis of its income inequality.

Equity in the delivery of health care in Europe and the US.

This paper presents a comparison of horizontal equity in health care utilization in 10 European countries and the US. It does not only extend previous work by using more recent data from a larger set of countries, but also uses new methods and presents disaggregated results by various types of care. In all countries, the lower-income groups are more intensive users of the health care system. But after indirect standardization for need differences, there is little or no evidence of significant inequity in the delivery of health care overall, though in half of the countries, significant pro-rich inequity emerges for physician contacts. This seems to be due mainly to a higher use of medical specialist services by higher-income groups and a higher use of GP care among lower-income groups. These findings appear to be fairly general and emerge in countries with very diverse characteristics regarding access and provider incentives.

Towards a reinforced agency role of health insurers in Belgium and The Netherlands.

This article describes some recent developments in health insurance in Belgium and the Netherlands. Both countries are moving towards greater financial responsibility of health insurers by means of risk-adjusted capitation payment systems. Although for the unwary observer it would appear as if both countries were following similar paths towards a common model, the authors make clear that rather different underlying rationales are driving these trends. In the Netherlands, the grand design 'Dekker proposal' for regulated competition has been replaced by a more gradual implementation of reforms with more limited scope. The ultimate goal remains a system of managed competition, albeit only for part of the health care services. In Belgium, prospective risk-adjusted capitation payment has always been at the heart of the original system in principle since its inception, but non-enforcement led to retrospective and inequitable financing in practice. Although the rhetoric of managed competition has never been used explicitly in any Belgian official government policy document, it seems unlikely that putting the insurers at financial risk without simultaneously also reinforcing their agency role by providing instruments for care management-like, for example, selective contracting--is viable in the longer run without jeopardizing the solvency of the insurers. The authors conclude that although the logic of the managed competition model is appealing, the lack of conclusive empirical evidence of success elsewhere makes governments reluctant to surrender their traditional cost containment tools. But making insurers financially accountable without simultaneously providing them with tools to take on the accountability seems useless and illogical.

Equity in the finance of health care: some further international comparisons.

This paper presents further international comparisons of progressivity of health care financing systems. The paper builds on the work of Wagstaff et al. [Wagstaff, A., van Doorslaer E., et al., 1992. Equity in the finance of health care: some international comparisons, Journal of Health Economics 11, pp. 361-387] but extends it in a number of directions: we modify the methodology used there and achieve a higher degree of cross-country comparability in variable definitions; we update and extend the cross-section of countries; and we present evidence on trends in financing mixes and progressivity.

The redistributive effect of health care finance in twelve OECD countries.

The OECD countries finance their health care through a mixture of taxes, social insurance contributions, private insurance premiums and out-of-pocket payments. The various payment sources have very different implications for both vertical and horizontal equity and on redistributive effect which is a function of both. This paper presents results on the income redistribution consequences of the health care financing mixes adopted in twelve OECD countries by decomposing the overall income redistributive effect into a progressivity, horizontal inequity and reranking component. The general finding of this study is that the vertical effect is much more important than horizontal inequity and reranking in determining the overall redistributive effect but that their relative importance varies by source of payment. Public finance sources tend to have small positive redistributive effects and less differential treatment while private financing sources generally have (larger) negative redistributive effects which are to a substantial degree caused by differential treatment.

An economic evaluation of hepatitis A vaccination in Dutch military personnel.

We analyzed the cost-effectiveness of hepatitis A vaccination regimens using a mathematical simulation model. Passive immunization and two active vaccination strategies (with and without prior screening) were compared with "doing nothing." Hepatitis A antibodies were determined in 2,325 Dutch marines; other input data were retrieved from published and unpublished sources. The prevalence of hepatitis A antibody was 14%. Screening before vaccination was identified as appropriate at a prevalence > 20%. Passive immunization was the cheapest prevention for a single 6-month deployment per 10 years. The inactivated vaccine containing 1,440 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay units without prior screening was identified as the best option for more frequent deployments. It was cost-saving with two or more missions per 10 years. A 5.3% hepatitis A attack rate validated the investment for this policy. Overall, immunization with inactivated hepatitis A vaccine without prior screening proved to be the optimum strategy for troops at regular risk.

Economic evaluation of pertussis prevention by whole-cell and acellular vaccine in Germany.

UNLABELLED: Acellular pertussis vaccines are less reactogenic than whole cell pertussis vaccines, but they are also more expensive. Based on simulation models, we compared the costs and effects of three alternative pertussis vaccination strategies in German children to "no prevention": (1) vaccination with whole-cell vaccine at 45% coverage (vaccine efficacy 90%), (2) vaccination with acellular vaccine at 45% coverage (vaccine efficacy 85%), and (3) vaccination with acellular vaccine at 90% coverage. In the two low coverage scenarios expected annual savings in direct medical costs through prevention of disease were larger for whole-cell than for acellular vaccination (252 vs 216 million DM, respectively). Direct costs for treating the more important adverse events induced by whole-cell vaccination (16.9 million DM annually) did not outweigh the higher direct costs of pertussis infections not prevented with the acellular vaccine and the higher price of the acellular vaccine. However, vaccination with acellular pertussis vaccine rapidly becomes as cost saving as vaccination with whole-cell vaccine as soon as vaccination coverage can be raised from 45% to 52.5% with acellular vaccine. Acellular vaccination is also the superior alternative when considering indirect cost savings resulting from reduction in work-loss due to adverse events. CONCLUSION: In our simulations, the most cost-effective pertussis prevention strategy was the use of an effective whole-cell vaccine with a high coverage rate. Introduction of the more expensive acellular pertussis vaccines becomes cost saving if at least a 7.5% increase in coverage is achieved. If also non-medical indirect costs to parents resulting from vaccine associated side-effects are accounted for, acellular vaccines may be more cost-effective also in countries with already high whole-cell vaccine coverage.

Cost-effectiveness analysis of formoterol versus salmeterol in patients with asthma.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine the relative economic consequences of treating asthmatics with twice daily dry powder formoterol 12 micrograms as compared with salmeterol 50 micrograms from a societal perspective. DESIGN AND SETTING: A randomised, 6-month, open-label study including 482 patients with asthma was conducted in Italy, Spain, France, Switzerland, the UK and Sweden. Medical costs included the costs of medications, physician services, emergency room visits, hospital admissions and lung function and other tests. Travel costs and costs of production loss were also calculated. Unit prices were estimated from external sources. To pool the costs of the 6 countries, European currencies were converted to US dollars using 1995 exchange rates. Outcome measures were the number of episode-free days (EFDs) and the number of patients reaching a clinically relevant improvement in quality of life as measured using the St. Georges Respiratory Questionnaire. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES AND RESULTS: There were no significant differences between the 2 treatment arms in the frequency of emergency room visits, hospital admissions, use of rescue medication or contacts with general practitioners (GPs), specialists or nurses. Median medical costs over 6 months were $US828 per patient with formoterol and $US850 with salmeterol. This difference was not statistically significant. In both groups, about 60% of all days were episode-free. Average costs per EFD were about $US9 for both treatments. The average cost per patient reaching a clinically relevant improvement in quality of life was between $US1300 and $US1400. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios were not calculated because both costs and outcomes were not significantly different. Asthma-related absenteeism ranged between 3 days and 6 months per patient in both groups. CONCLUSIONS: There was no evidence to suggest that either treatment was more cost effective than the other.

Progressivity, horizontal equity and reranking in health care finance: a decomposition analysis for The Netherlands.

This paper employs the method of Aronson et al. (1994) to decompose the redistributive effect of the Dutch health care financing system into three components: a progressivity component, a classical horizontal equity component and a reranking component. Results are presented for the health care financing system as a whole, as well as for its constituent parts. A final section sets out to uncover the relative importance (in terms of their effects on progressivity, horizontal equity and reranking) of the key institutional features of one component of the Dutch system-the AWBZ social insurance scheme.

Income-related inequalities in health: some international comparisons.

This paper presents evidence on income-related inequalities in self-assessed health in nine industrialized countries. Health interview survey data were used to construct concentration curves of self-assessed health, measured as a latent variable. Inequalities in health favoured the higher income groups and were statistically significant in all countries. Inequalities were particularly high in the United States and the United Kingdom. Amongst other European countries, Sweden, Finland and the former East Germany had the lowest inequality. Across countries, a strong association was found between inequalities in health and inequalities in income.

Costs and benefits of routine varicella vaccination in German children.

This study assessed the costs and benefits of introducing routine varicella vaccination to healthy children in Germany. Three vaccination strategies were compared with that of no prevention: vaccination of all 15-month-old children: vaccination of susceptible 12-year-olds (adolescent); and a combination of strategies (children including catch-up). From a purely economic viewpoint, the adeolescent strategy was optimal: It was the only one that resulted in net direct cost savings. However, since this strategy may be less acceptable from a medical or organizational point of view and because total net savings were the highest, a second option was to begin immunization starting with the 15-month-old children and to use the catch-up strategy for 11 years (total benefit-to-cost ratio (BCR), 4.72:1; cost-effectiveness ratio (CER), DM 6915 per life-year saved) and from year 12 on to use the first strategy (BCR, 4.60:1; CER, DM 19,735 per life-year saved).

Economic evaluation of antifungal agents in the treatment of toenail onychomycosis in Germany.

BACKGROUND: The strategies for the management of onychomycosis have changed since the availability of the newer generation of antifungal agents, particularly, itraconazole and terbinafine. Itraconazole (1-week pulse) therapy may have higher efficacy and an improved adverse-effects profile compared to the continuous therapy regimen. OBJECTIVE: We performed a pharmacoeconomic evaluation of the most commonly used treatments in Germany for toenail onychomycosis from a health care payer perspective. METHODS: A 5-step approach was used. Firstly, the purpose of the study, the comparator drugs, their dosage regimens and the time frame of the analysis were defined. Next, the medical practice and resource consumption patterns associated with the treatment of onychomycosis were identified. In step III, a meta-analysis was used to determine the relative efficacy of the comparator drugs. In step IV, a decision tree of the treatment algorithms was constructed for each comparator. The expected cost analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis were also performed. Finally, a sensitivity analysis was carried out. RESULTS: For the four main comparator drugs used to treat toenail onychomycosis in Germany, the clinical response rates (clinical cure plus marked improvement) at the end of the follow-up period (month 12 after starting therapy) were, for itraconazole (1-week pulse dosing): 89.8 +/- 3% (mean +/- SE), terbinafine: 79.4 +/- 10%, itraconazole (continuous dosing): 77.5 +/- 9%, and ciclopirox nail varnish: 55 +/- 5%. Itraconazole (1-week pulse dosing) was most cost-effective at DM 1,107 per successful treatment, followed by oral terbinafine at DM 1,224, ciclopirox nail varnish and itraconazole (continuous dosing). Sensitivity analyses indicated that itraconazole (1-week pulse dosing) and terbinafine had similar cost-effectiveness ratios. CONCLUSION: Itraconazole is an effective, broad-spectrum triazole used as continuous or pulse therapy in the treatment of onychomycosis. Itraconazole (1-week pulse) and terbinafine are the most cost-effective therapies for toenail onychomycosis.

Methodological issues of patient utility measurement. Experience from two clinical trials.

This article explores various methodological issues of patient utility measurement in two randomized controlled clinical trials involving 85 patients with fibromyalgia and 144 with ankylosing spondylitis. In both trials one baseline and two follow-up measurements of the patients' preferences for their own health state and several hypothetical states were performed using the rating scale and the standard gamble methods. It was confirmed that standard gamble scores are consistently higher than rating scale scores for both the experienced and the hypothetical states. The 3-month test-retest reliability for hypothetical states measured by intraclass correlation coefficients ranged from 0.24 to 0.33 for the rating scale and from 0.43 to 0.70 for the standard gamble. Although the reproducibility is not high, the group mean scores are fairly stable over time. Mean standard gamble scores tend to differ depending on the way the measurements are undertaken. Utilities elicited with chained gambles were significantly higher than utilities elicited with basic reference gambles. At the individual level some inconsistent responses occurred. However, more than 70% of these fell within the bounds of the measurement error, which ranged from 0.11 to 0.13 on the standard gamble (0-1 scale) and from 8 to 10 on the rating scale (0-100 scale). The large number of negative utilities for the severe hypothetical state, which was used as an anchor point in the chained gambles, and the magnitude of these negative utilities (down to -19) calls for intensified research efforts to handle these responses in utility calculations.

Patient utilities in fibromyalgia and the association with other outcome measures.

OBJECTIVE: To compare in patients with fibromyalgia (FM) utilities derived by rating scale and standard gamble methods; to gain insight into construct validity by relating utility values to other outcome measures; to assess the sensitivity to change of utilities. METHODS: A total of 73 patients with FM were randomized into one of 3 groups: low impact fitness training, biofeedback, or controls. At baseline and after 6 mo the Maastricht Utility Measurement Questionnaire was applied. By means of both the rating scale and standard gamble method patients were asked to value their own health status. Construct validity of patient utility measurements was evaluated by Spearman correlation and multiple regression of baseline values with pain, stiffness, patient's global assessment, Sickness Impact Profile (SIP), modified Health Assessment Questionnaire and Arthritis Impact Measurement Scale (AIMS). Sensitivity to change was assessed against changes in these outcomes. RESULTS: Rating scale utilities correlated significantly (p < 0.05) with patient's global assessment (rs = 0.53), pain (rs = -0.47), SIP (rs = -0.43), and with 9 of 11 dimensions of the AIMS (rs ranging from 0.23 to 0.62). Standard gamble utilities correlated significantly with mobility, pain, and arthritis impact of the AIMS scale (rs from 0.22 to 0.36) and with pain by visual analog scale (rs = -0.24) and patient's global assessment (rs = 0.32). Multiple regression analysis showed that patient's global assessment explained 41% (rating scale) and 10% (standard gamble) of total variance in baseline utilities. Also, 16% of the variance in change in rating scale utility values was explained by changes in patient's global assessment. In contrast, variance of changes in standard gamble utility values was not explained significantly by changes in other disease outcomes. CONCLUSION: Rating scale utilities correlated more strongly with disease outcome measures than standard gamble utilities. Also, construct validity for the rating scale was better than for the standard gamble. In FM, utility measurement is sensitive to the method chosen to elicit patient priorities.