Journal of medical economics
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This paper reports on the results of a series of quantitative assessments of the association of severe and frequent pain with health-related quality of life and healthcare resource utilization in five European countries. ⋯ For the five largest EU countries, the societal burden of pain is considerable. The experience of pain far outweighs the contribution of more traditional explanations of HRQoL deficits as well as being the primary factor associated with increased provider visits, emergency room visits and hospitalizations.
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Treatment in the hospital setting accounts for the largest portion of healthcare costs for COPD, but there is little information about components of hospital care that contribute most to these costs. The authors determined the costs and characteristics of COPD-related hospital-based healthcare in a Medicare population. ⋯ In this Medicare population, COPD exacerbations and related inpatient and emergency department care represented a substantial cost burden. Admissions involving intubation were associated with the highest costs, lengths of stay and inpatient mortality. This population needs to be managed and treated adequately in order to prevent these severe events.
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To compare demographic and comorbidity profiles and healthcare costs of Medicaid patients with postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) treated with lidocaine patch 5% (lidocaine patch) versus patients not treated with the lidocaine patch. Repeat comparison for the subset of patients treated in long-term care (LTC) settings. ⋯ Findings are based on a Medicaid sample and may not be generalizable to all PHN patients.
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Duloxetine is approved to treat diabetic peripheral neuropathic pain (DPNP) in the US. The study objective was to examine the predictors of duloxetine compliance, and its association with healthcare costs among DPNP patients. ⋯ DPNP patients with a higher ADD of duloxetine over a 1-year follow-up period were more compliant with the therapy. Duloxetine patients with high compliance were also associated with lower healthcare costs. Due to the use of a retrospective cohort design on administrative claims database, limitations of this analysis include a lack of formal diagnostic testing of patients, and inability to infer causality or measure factors such as DPNP severity that are not captured in such database.
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To assess the cost-utility of celecoxib in three treatment strategies for arthritis in Quebec, considering both upper gastrointestinal (GI) and cardiovascular (CV) events. ⋯ Although effectiveness of second- and third-line celecoxib use is similar, total cost is lower for second-line. These results suggest that the use of celecoxib before the combination of a non-selective NSAID plus a PPI is relatively cost-effective in the treatment of arthritis pain and support the full benefit listing of celecoxib in Quebec's drug programme.