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Biomedical subjects

Daniel Polsky

Publications and source records attributed to Daniel Polsky.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2003

Economic evaluation of breast cancer treatment: considering the value of patient choice.

PURPOSE: To use 5 years of primary data to compare the incremental cost-effectiveness of breast conservation and radiation versus mastectomy with the restriction of choice to a single therapy versus providing a choice of either therapy. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We evaluated a random retrospective cohort of 2,517 Medicare beneficiaries treated for newly diagnosed stage I or II breast cancer from 1992 through 1994. The outcome measures were quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) and 5-year medical costs. Risk and propensity score adjustments were used in the analysis. RESULTS: A breast conservation and radiation regimen has significantly higher costs than mastectomy in the first year after surgery; the adjusted 5-year costs are $14,054 (95% confidence interval, $9,791 to $18,312) greater than those of mastectomy. The adjusted incremental cost-effectiveness ratio comparing breast conservation and radiation to mastectomy was $219,594 per QALY for the comparison of the two strategies. If the possibility of patient choice from maintaining the availability of multiple treatments versus restricting choice to mastectomy alone provides a quality-of-life gain of 0.031 QALYs, then the cost-effectiveness ratio of this choice option is $80,440 per QALY. CONCLUSION: The current system of providing a choice between mastectomy and breast conservation surgery is economically attractive when the economic analysis includes the benefit of patient choice of treatment.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

An exploratory instrumental variable analysis of the outcomes of localized breast cancer treatments in a medicare population.

This study is motivated by the potential problem of using observational data to draw inferences about treatment outcomes when experimental data are not available. We compare two statistical approaches, ordinary least-squares (OLS) and instrumental variables (IV) regression analysis, to estimate the outcomes (three-year post-treatment survival) of three treatments for early stage breast cancer in elderly women: mastectomy (MST), breast conserving surgery with radiation therapy (BCSRT), and breast conserving surgery only (BCSO). The primary data source was Medicare claims for a national random sample of 2907 women (age 67 or older) with localized breast cancer who were treated between 1992 and 1994. Contrary to randomized clinical trial (RCT) results, analysis with the observational data found highly significant differences in survival among the three treatment alternatives: 79.2% survival for BCSO, 85.3% for MST, and 93.0% for BCSRT. Using OLS to control for the effects of observable characteristics narrowed the estimated survival rate differences, which remained statistically significant. In contrast, the IV analysis estimated survival rate differences that were not significantly different from 0. However, the IV-point estimates of the treatment effects were quantitatively larger than the OLS estimates, unstable, and not significantly different from the OLS results. In addition, both sets of estimates were in the same quantitative range as the RCT results.We conclude that unadjusted observational data on health outcomes of alternative treatments for localized breast cancer should not be used for cost-effectiveness studies. Our comparisons suggest that whether one places greater confidence in the OLS or the IV results depends on at least three factors: (1) the extent of observable health information that can be used as controls in OLS estimation, (2) the outcomes of statistical tests of the validity of the instrumental variable method, and (3) the similarity of the OLS and IV estimates. In this particular analysis, the OLS estimates appear to be preferable because of the instability of the IV estimates.

Aged↗
PubMed2003

Design and analysis of unit cost estimation studies: How many hospital diagnoses? How many countries?

We evaluated three questions that commonly arise when unit costing exercises for multinational trials are conducted: (1). In countries where investigators plan to collect hospital unit cost estimates for a selected set of diagnoses, how should one estimate unit costs for the remaining diagnoses observed in the trial for which cost data were not collected? (2). For how many hospital diagnoses should estimates be obtained? (3). For how many countries should they be obtained? We addressed these questions using unit cost data collected in four western European countries and three relative value measures from the US Medicare diagnosis-related group (DRG) payment system. We found that the arithmetic mean length of stay from the US DRG payment system was a good predictor of unit costs in four countries in Europe. We also found that the imputation error decreased as the number of hospital diagnoses and countries sampled increased, but that the rate of reduction in error shrank. Finally, we found that - given the existence of a reliable method for cost imputation - from a pure information standpoint, it is better to obtain estimates for fewer hospital diagnoses from more countries than the reverse.

Costs and Cost Analysis↗
PubMed2003

Factors affecting decisions to seek treatment for sick children in Kerala, India.

The purpose of this study was to measure the effects of social and economic variables, disease-related variables, and child gender on the decisions of parents in Kerala, India, to seek care for their children and on their choice of providers in the allopathic vs. the alternative system. A case-control analysis was done using data from the Kerala section of the 1996 Indian National Family Health Survey, a cross-sectional survey of a probability sample of households conducted by trained interviewers with a close-ended questionnaire. Of the 469 children who were eligible for this study because they had at least one common symptom suggestive of acute respiratory illness or diarrhea during the 2 weeks before the interview, 78 (17%) did not receive medical care, while the remaining 391 (83%) received medical care. Of the 391 children who received medical care, 342 (88%) received allopathic medical care, and 48 (12%) received alternative medical care. In multivariable analyses, parents chose not to seek medical care for their children significantly more often when the illness was mild, the child had a specific diagnosis, the mother had previously made fewer antenatal visits, and the family had a higher economic status. When parents sought medical care for their children, care was sought significantly more often in the alternative provider system when the child was a boy, the family lived in a rural area, and the family had a lower social class. We conclude that, in Kerala, disease severity and economic status predict whether children with acute respiratory infection or diarrhea are taken to medical providers. In contrast, most studies of this issue carried out in other populations have identified economic status as the primary predictor of medical system utilization. Also in Kerala, the gender of the child did not influence whether or not the child was taken for treatment but did influence whether care was sought in the alternative or the allopathic system.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed2003

Services integration and cost-effectiveness.

Alcohol treatment services are increasingly combined with other health and social services to address the needs of multiple-problem clients. Hence, it has been of growing policy interest to find the most effective and the most cost-effective ways of linking these services. This symposium presents some recent studies in this area. The small but growing body of studies in this area has great potential to inform public policy debates.

Alcoholism↗
PubMed2002

Initial practice locations of international medical graduates.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the influence of place of graduate medical education (GME), state licensure requirements, presence of established international medical graduates (IMGs), and ethnic communities on the initial practice location choices of new IMGs. DATA SOURCES: The annual Graduate Medical Education (GME) Survey of the American Medical Association (AMA) and the AMA Physician Masterfile. STUDY DESIGN: We identified 19,940 IMGs who completed GME in the United States between 1989 and 1994 and who were in patient care practice 4.5 years later. We used conditional logit regression analysis to assess the effect of market area characteristics on the choice of practice location. The key explanatory variables in the regression models were whether the market area was in the state of GME, the years of GME required for state licensure, the proportion of IMGs among established physicians, and the ethnic composition of the market area. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The IMGs tended to locate in the same state as their GME training. Foreign-born IMGs were less likely to locate in markets with more stringent licensure requirements, and were more likely to locate in markets with higher proportions of established IMG physicians. The IMGs born in Hispanic or Asian countries were more likely to locate in markets with higher proportions of the corresponding ethnic group. CONCLUSIONS: Policymakers may influence the flow of new IMGs into states by changing the availability of GME positions. IMGs tend to favor the same markets over time, suggesting that networks among established IMGs play a role in attracting new IMGs. Further, IMGs choose their practice locations based on ethnic matching.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Patient choice of breast cancer treatment: impact on health state preferences.

BACKGROUND: Multiple treatment options exist for many medical conditions. The extent to which physicians should involve the patient in the choice the treatment to be delivered is not well understood. OBJECTIVE: To test the impact of breast cancer treatment choice on patients' health state preferences. DESIGN AND SETTING: A cohort from 29 hospitals (primarily referral centers) in Massachusetts, Texas, Washington DC, and New York. Subjects were surveyed at 5 months, 1 year, and 2 years following surgery and asked whether they had a choice in the type of treatment received. SUBJECTS: Women age 67 or older treated in 1996 to 1997 for localized breast cancer (n = 683). MEASURES: Patient preferences for current health state, assessed with patient valuations using the visual analogue scale (VAS) from the EuroQol instrument and with general public valuations using the Health Utilities Index (HUI), and 1-year medical costs. RESULTS: For the adjusted analysis at 5 months, the adjusted mean VAS score was 78.7 for women who reported a choice and 75.3 for women who reported no choice, a difference of 3.4 (P = 0.03). The difference in the HUI score was 3.6 (P= 0.10) and the difference in the 1-year medical costs was -4363 dollars (P = 0.01). There were no statistically significant differences at the 1-year and 2-year interviews. CONCLUSIONS: A woman's perception of choice of surgical treatment for breast cancer is associated with a short-term benefit on her preference of health state, suggesting choice helps with recovery, but does not provide long-term benefits.

Aged↗
PubMed2002

Duration of therapy and health care costs of fluoxetine, paroxetine, and sertraline in 6 health plans.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies comparing fluoxetine, paroxetine, and sertraline, the 3 most common selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), in naturalistic settings have produced conflicting results. With this study, we provide new evidence as to the similarities and differences among these SSRI therapies with respect to the duration of use and health care costs. METHOD: Data from 6 health maintenance organizations were used to identify patients with new-onset major depression. number of days with filled prescriptions, and total health care and depression-related costs. The sample consisted of 1771 patients given initial prescriptions for sertraline (N = 386), fluoxetine (N = 840), or paroxetine (N = 545) in the period from July 1, 1994, to March 31, 1997. Analyses included Cox proportional hazards models (for duration of initial therapy) and ordinary least squares regression (for cost). RESULTS: Patients who initiated therapy with fluoxetine were more likely to have a later interruption of therapy than patients who initiated therapy with sertraline (p = .03) and paroxetine (p = .001). Total 1-year costs did not differ statistically between the treatment groups, but 1-year depression-related costs were significantly lower for patients who initiated therapy with sertraline or paroxetine than for those who initiated therapy with fluoxetine ($332 less for sertraline, 95% confidence interval [CI] = $125 to $562; $339 less for paroxetine, 95% CI = $144 to $416). LIMITATIONS: A limitation of this observational study, as well as of observational studies in general, is that unobserved characteristics of the patients may lead to biased estimates of the impact of treatment on adherence or cost, even with controls for observed characteristics. CONCLUSION: We found no significant differences in total health care costs among the 3 SSRIs, but noted significant differences in depression-related costs (the costs of fluoxetine are greater than those of sertraline and paroxetine). Importantly, there was no relationship between treatment interruption and increased health care or depression-related costs, in contrast to the findings of some, but not all, prior studies.

Adolescent↗