• Patricia M Herman, Orest Szczurko, Kieran Cooley, and Dugald Seely.
• From the Center for Health Outcomes and Pharmacoeconomics Research (Dr Herman), University of Arizona, and the RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, Calif; Department of Research and Clinical Epidemiology (Drs Szczurko, Cooley, and Seely), Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; and Department of Social and Administrative Pharmacy (Drs Szczurko and Cooley), University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
• J. Occup. Environ. Med. 2014 Feb 1;56(2):171-6.

ObjectiveTo determine the cost-effectiveness of a worksite-based naturopathic (individualized lifestyle counseling and nutritional medicine) approach to primary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD).MethodsEconomic evaluation alongside a pragmatic, multi-worksite, randomized controlled trial comparing enhanced usual care (EUC; usual care plus biometric screening) to the addition of a naturopathic approach to CVD prevention (NC+EUC).ResultsAfter 1 year, NC+EUC resulted in a net decrease of 3.3 (confidence interval: 1.7 to 4.8) percentage points in 10-year CVD event risk (number needed to treat = 30). These risk reductions came with average net study-year savings of $1138 in societal costs and $1187 in employer costs. There was no change in quality-adjusted life years across the study year.ConclusionsA naturopathic approach to CVD primary prevention significantly reduced CVD risk over usual care plus biometric screening and reduced costs to society and employers in this multi-worksite-based study. Trial Registration clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00718796.

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