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Biomedical subjects

M Johannesson

Publications and source records attributed to M Johannesson.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1997

Saving lives in the present versus saving lives in the future--is there a framing effect?

This study considers how to compare programs which are designed to save lives. "To estimate the discount rate for lives saved in the future a number of studies have been carried out on the trade-off between saving lives now and in the future. A telephone survey is administered to about 1,700 individuals [in Sweden] to test if the framing of the question affects the estimated trade-off. In one sample the question is framed as saving 100 lives today versus saving x future lives and in one sample the question is framed as saving 100 future lives versus saving y lives today. The result shows that the framing has a major impact on the trade-off."

Demography↗
PubMed1997

Willingness to pay for reduced incontinence symptoms.

OBJECTIVE: To measure the willingness to pay for a reduction in the number of micturitions and urinary leakages for patients with urge incontinence. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A self-administered questionnaire with a binary willingness-to-pay question was administered to 541 patients in Sweden with urge or mixed incontinence; 461 questionnaires were returned. The reduction in micturitions and urinary leakages valued in the willingness-to-pay question was varied randomly between 25% and 50% in two different subsamples. Information was also collected about the number of micturitions and urinary leakage, health-related quality of life and socio-economic characteristics of the patients in the study. RESULTS: Quality of life was significantly related to the severity of the symptoms and was worse than that of the sex- and age-matched general Swedish population. The median (mean) willingness to pay per month was 240 (530) Swedish krona (SEK, 1 Pound = SEK 11.50) for a 25% reduction in micturitions and leakages and SEK 470 (1030) for a 50% reduction in micturitions and leakages. As hypothesized, the willingness to pay was significantly related to the size of the reduction in micturitions and leakages, the initial number of micturitions and leakages, and income. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with incontinence problems are willing to pay substantial amounts for a reduction in the number of micturitions and leakages.

Female↗
PubMed1997

The impact of hormone replacement therapy on quality of life and willingness to pay.

OBJECTIVE: To measure the gain in quality of life due to hormone replacement therapy for women with mild and severe menopausal symptoms. DESIGN: Prospective study where data on quality of life and willingness to pay were collected by interview. SETTING: Department of Gynaecology at Södertälje Hospital near Stockholm. PARTICIPANTS: One hundred and four women aged 45 to 65 years treated for menopausal symptoms for at least one month. METHODS: Quality of life was measured by the time tradeoff and rating scale methods. The willingness to pay for hormone replacement therapy was investigated using the contingent valuation method. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The quality adjusted life year weight measured with the rating scale and time tradeoff methods, and willingness to pay. RESULTS: The increase in the quality adjusted life year weight due to hormone replacement therapy for women with mild symptoms was 0.26 according to the rating scale method and 0.18 according to the time tradeoff method. For women with severe symptoms the quality adjusted life year weight increased by 0.50 according to the rating scale method and by 0.42 according to the time tradeoff method. The mean willingness to pay for hormone replacement therapy per month was 2300 Swedish krone for women with mild symptoms and 4800 Swedish krone for women with severe symptoms (Pounds 1 = 10.3 Swedish krone). CONCLUSIONS: Hormone replacement therapy leads to a major improvement in quality of life for women with menopausal symptoms. Both for women with mild and severe menopausal symptoms the willingness to pay for the treatment also greatly exceeds the costs, indicating that hormone replacement therapy is economically beneficial for women with menopausal symptoms.

Aged↗
PubMed1997

Delayed puberty in girls with cystic fibrosis despite good clinical status.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have shown that puberty is delayed among patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). Malnutrition has been considered the main etiologic factor. Today with improved medical therapy and nutritional support, most CF patients obtain an almost normal nutritional status. OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether pubertal development among female CF patients at the Stockholm CF Center was normal and, if not, what other parameters besides nutrition might influence this. METHODS: Seventeen patients were studied retrospectively regarding age at peak height velocity and menarche. Menarcheal age (MA) was compared with normal population data and related to clinical and nutritional status, genotype, oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), and essential fatty acid levels. RESULTS: The mean age at peak height velocity (12.9 +/- 0.8 years) and at menarche (14.9 +/- 1.4 years) was significantly higher in the CF patients compared with normal controls (11.9 +/- 1.0 years and 13.0 +/- 1.0 years, respectively). No correlation was found between menarchal age and nutritional or clinical parameters. The patients with pathological OGTT without overt diabetes were significantly older at menarche (15.8 +/- 1.7 years) compared with the patients with normal OGTT (14.3 +/- 0.9 years). The patients who were homozygous for the most common mutation, deltaF508, were significantly older at menarche (15.2 +/- 1.9 years) than those who were not (14.7 +/- 0.9 years). CONCLUSIONS: Pubertal delay still existed among the CF patients despite good clinical status. The patients homozygous for deltaF508 and those with pathological OGTT showed the most delayed puberty.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Avoiding double-counting in pharmacoeconomic studies.

In cost-utility analyses of pharmaceutical treatments, the costs are measured in monetary terms and the effects are measured as quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) gained. QALYs are constructed by assigning life years a quality weight between 0 (dead) and 1 (full health). A potential problem in cost-utility analysis is that some consequences, in principle, can be included both in the costs and in the quality adjustment, which can lead to double-counting. This article outlines the double-counting problem in cost-utility analysis. It shows that the potential for double-counting depends on how healthcare and income losses resulting from disease are financed, and on how the questions that assess the quality weights are phrased. Double-counting can be avoided by telling respondents to assume that healthcare costs and income losses are fully reimbursed when quality weights are assessed. The quality weights would then capture the change in health and leisure, and the other consequences could be included in the cost estimation.

Cost-Benefit Analysis↗
PubMed1996

A note on the estimation of the equity-efficiency trade-off for QALYs.

In this note the veil of ignorance approach is tested as a basis for empirically determining the shape of the social welfare function for QALYs. An experiment is carried out where the participants choose between different societies that differ with respect to per capita QALYs and the distribution of QALYs. The answers are analyzed using logistic regression analysis. According to the results the respondents are willing to give up I QALY in the group with more QALYs to gain 0.45 QALYs in the group with fewer QALYs, but this trade-off is independent of the size of the difference in QALYs between the groups.

Decision Making↗
PubMed1996

Incorporating quality of life changes into economic evaluations of health care: an overview.

The demand for economic evaluations of health care programs, especially pharmaceuticals, is steadily increasing. One of the most important issues in this field is how to measure, value and incorporate changes in quality of life into the economic evaluation. We provide an overview of the different approaches to measure changes in quality of life: quality of life instruments, the quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) approach and the willingness to pay approach. Quality of life instruments have major practical advantages since they are easy to administer. The results of these instruments cannot, however, be used in economic evaluations. In economic evaluations, the quality of life has to be measured on the 0 (death) to 1 (full health) scale necessary to construct QALYs, or the willingness to pay for the changes in quality of life has to be measured. Such measurements are, however, much less straightforward to carry out. It would therefore be a major advance if it would be possible to directly translate the quality of life score into a QALY weight or the willingness to pay. It is recommended that more systematic research should be carried out on the relationship between quality of life, QALY weights, and willingness to pay.

Cost-Benefit Analysis↗
PubMed1996

The willingness to pay for health changes, the human-capital approach and the external costs.

In this paper, the relationship between willingness to pay for health changes, the human-capital approach, and the costs that should be included in a cost-benefit analysis of a health care programme are analysed. The costs that should be included are defined as the change in consumption minus the change in production of the individual that receives a health care programme. The size of these external costs differs depending on the institutional arrangements in society. It is shown that the net production version of the human-capital approach is an estimation of the external costs. The human-capital approach can thus be given a theoretical foundation in cost-benefit analysis if it is used to estimate the external costs.

Attitude to Health↗
PubMed1996

A note on the relationship between ex ante and expected willingness to pay for health care.

It has been argued that the willingness to pay for health care services in contingent valuation studies should be assessed ex ante from an insurance perspective. It may however be easier to assess the willingness to pay among a group of patients in need of a specific treatment. This willingness to pay measure can be used to estimate the expected willingness to pay. This paper investigates the relationship between ex ante and expected willingness to pay. It is shown that expected willingness to pay is a lower bound for ex ante willingness to pay for a treatment that restores the individual to full health for an individual that is risk averse with respect to income. For a treatment that does not restore an individual to full health the expected willingness to pay is not necessarily a lower bound for the ex ante willingness to pay if the marginal utility of income increases with better health.

Cost-Benefit Analysis↗
PubMed1996

Interpretation of change scores in ordinal clinical scales and health status measures: the whole may not equal the sum of the parts.

The objective of this study was to analyze the problem of interpreting change scores of ordinal health status measures for clinical research or practice. Methods used included exploration of the generation of change scores in the physical ability scale of the SF-36, one of the most widely used generic health status instruments. Resulting data are presented as the ranking of items according to baseline score; a percentage of patients with severe difficulty and Rasch analysis provided the same rank order of item difficulty. On the interval scale provided by the Rasch model a concentration of items reflecting moderate difficulty occurred. This "inflates" numerical gains for patients with moderate disability compared to patients with very severe or minor physical disability. Calibration of change scores using patient perception of the level of change in function showed important variation of numerical gains with baseline. We conclude that numerically equal gains may differ in their meaning depending on baseline health status. It is recommended that distribution of baseline health status measures and distribution of responders by baseline status be reported in evaluative studies.

Data Collection↗
PubMed1996

The economics of ageing: on the attitude of Swedish people to the distribution of health care resources between the young and the old.

The Swedish Priorities Investigation [1] proposes that no account should be taken of a patient's age when allocating health care resources. Measures to save an old person's life are to be given the same priority as measures to save a young person's life. In the present study it is shown that the attitude of the Swedish population to this age-related problem is dramatically different from that laid down in the priorities investigation. On average, people are willing to sacrifice thirty-five 70-year-olds to save one 30-year-old. It is also shown that a measure which increases life-expectancy by 1 year, conditional on having survived until the age of 75 years, is given a low weighting. The (maximum) insurance premium the average Swede is willing to pay for such a programme is about 700 pounds.

Aged↗
PubMed1996

The cost effectiveness of lipid lowering in Swedish primary health care. The CELL Study Group.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of two types of advice (usual and intensive) to lower cardiovascular risk, with or without pharmacological medication aimed at lowering cholesterol levels. DESIGN: Prospective, randomized, controlled clinical study of 18 months' duration. SETTING: Thirty-two primary health care centres in Sweden. SUBJECTS: A total of 384 males, aged 30-59 years, with at least one cardiovascular risk factor in addition to moderate primary hyperlipidaemia; of these, 355 completed the 18-month follow-up. INTERVENTIONS: Intensive advice consisted of group sessions led by a health care professional; the usual level of advice was given at follow-up visits. The pharmacological intervention consisted of pravastatin. The goal was to achieve a 15% reduction in cholesterol. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Cost per life-year gained based on the change in serum cholesterol and the net intervention cost of the four treatment options. RESULTS: The usual level of advice and intensive advice in combination with pharmacological treatment achieved no incremental effects and were not considered in the cost-effectiveness analysis. The cost per life-year gained of pharmacological treatment compared with intensive advice decreased. The cost per life-year gained of pharmacological treatment compared with no treatment was about $61,000, if no adverse consequences on noncardiovascular mortality were assumed. CONCLUSIONS: According to the results of the CELL trial, intensive advice is not a cost-effective strategy compared with lipid-lowering drug treatment. However, it is also doubtful whether drug treatment as primary prevention is cost-effective compared with no treatment in the studied patient population.

Cholesterol↗
PubMed1996

Cost-effectiveness of cholesterol lowering. Results from the Scandinavian Simvastatin Survival Study (4S)

An analysis of the cost-effectiveness of simvastatin was conducted, based on the Scandinavian Simvastatin Survival Study (4S). The total cost of hospitalization in the placebo group was 52.8 million Swedish kronor (SEK) (5.15 million pounds), compared with SEK 36.0 million (3.51 million pounds) in the simvastatin group. This amounts to a 32% reduction, or a saving of SEK 16.8 million (1.6 million pounds) or SEK 7560 (738 pounds) per patient. The net cost per patient for the duration of the study (5.4 years) was SEK 13,540 (1324 pounds). Simvastatin treatment saved an estimated 0.377 undiscounted life years (0.240 life years discounted at 5% per annum). The cost of simvastatin therapy per discounted life-year saved was therefore SEK 56,400 (5502 pounds). Sensitivity analysis, examining the effect of different life expectancies, costs of initiation and monitoring of simvastatin therapy, and discount rates, showed the results to be stable. Conclusion. The cost per life-year saved of simvastatin in the treatment of post-myocardial infarction and angina patients, as determined from 4S data, is well within the range normally considered cost-effective.

Anticholesteremic Agents↗
PubMed1996

Use of misoprostol in the elderly: is the expense justified?

Misoprostol is a prostaglandin E1 analogue which reduces both gastric ulcerations and clinically important bleeding in patients taking nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Economic evaluations of prophylactic use of misoprostol with NSAIDs differ in their conclusions mainly because of different assumptions regarding the absolute risk reduction of symptomatic ulcers. Assuming a conservative estimate of the absolute risk reduction based on new effectiveness data, all studies would have concluded that misoprostol prophylaxis results in net costs in the general population of NSAID users. However, in the elderly with a clearly increased risk of gastrointestinal (GI) lesions and ulcer complications, and an increased hospitalisation rate, misoprostol may be cost saving. Also, in the elderly the gain in quality of life seems to offset the uncertain reduction in quality of life due to the adverse effects of misoprostol. However, the suggestion that misoprostol prophylaxis in the elderly is cost effective or cost saving needs to be confirmed in further studies.

Aged↗
PubMed1996

The decision rules of cost-effectiveness analysis.

It has become increasingly popular to carry out cost-effectiveness analyses in economic evaluations of healthcare programmes. Cost-effectiveness analysis is based on the maximisation of the health effects for a given amount of resources. However, many published studies fail to report the results of cost-effectiveness analysis in a way that is consistent with this underlying aim. The aim of this article is to demonstrate the decision rules of cost-effectiveness analysis in an easily accessible way for practitioners in the field. A hypothetical example is used to demonstrate the decision rules of cost-effectiveness analysis, and we also show how to estimate the appropriate incremental cost-effectiveness ratios and how to exclude dominated alternatives. It is then shown how fixed budgets or predetermined prices per effectiveness unit can be used as decision rules to maximise health effects and to determine which programmes to implement on the basis of incremental cost-effectiveness ratios. We hope that the article will contribute towards an increased understanding and application of the appropriate decision rules of cost-effectiveness analysis, so that the results of cost-effectiveness analyses can be interpreted meaningfully by decision makers.

Budgets↗