Abstract How does the generosity of social insurance coverage affect the demand for healthcare and health outcomes of elderly people? This paper presents an examination of the effects of insurance coverage on long-term care (LTC) utilization and its health consequences using administrative data of the public long-term care insurance (LTCI) system in Japan. In LTCI, a recipient’s health score determines their insurance coverage limit, and thresholds of the score generate discontinuous changes in the level of coverage limits. I implement a regression discontinuity design and find that coverage e ..read more

Abstract Purpose This research examined the cost-effectiveness of adding empagliflozin to standard of care (SoC) compared with SoC alone for treatment of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) from the perspective of healthcare payers in the United Kingdom (UK), Spain and France. Methods A lifetime Markov cohort model was developed to simulate patients’ progression through health states based on Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire Clinical Summary Score. The model predicted risk of death, hospitalisation for worsening heart failure (HHF), treatment-related adverse ..read more

Abstract Purpose This research examined the cost-effectiveness of adding empagliflozin to standard of care (SoC) compared with SoC alone for treatment of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) from the perspective of healthcare payers in the United Kingdom (UK), Spain and France. Methods A lifetime Markov cohort model was developed to simulate patients’ progression through health states based on Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire Clinical Summary Score. The model predicted risk of death, hospitalisation for worsening heart failure (HHF), treatment-related adverse ..read more

Abstract Increasing prevalence of obesity (BMI > 30) is a pressing public health issue in the Czech Republic as well as world-wide, affecting up to 2.1 billion people. Increasing trend in the prevalence of obesity in adults and children generates large social costs. The main aim of this study is to estimate both direct and indirect costs of obesity in the Czech Republic. Social costs of obesity are estimated using the cost-of-illness approach. Direct costs (healthcare utilization costs and costs of pharmacotherapy of 20 comorbidities) are estimated using the top-down approach, while indirec ..read more

Abstract Objectives To evaluate the association between health and social care costs and early start of anti-dementia medication in a nationwide cohort of Finnish Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients. Methods The cohort included 7454 Finnish AD patients who had their first AD diagnosis in 2012 and lived at home at the time of diagnosis. Data were collected retrospectively from the Finnish national health and social care registers. The primary outcome was 2-year cumulative direct costs after the incident AD diagnosis. The exploratory variable was early anti-dementia medication start (anti-dementia ..read more

Abstract Background Worldwide obesity rates have nearly tripled over the past five decades. So far, policies to promote a healthier diet have been less intrusive than those to reduce tobacco and alcohol consumption. Not much is known about public support for policies that aim to promote a healthy diet. In this study, a discrete choice experiment (DCE) was used to elicit stated preferences for policies varying in intrusiveness among a representative sample of the public of The Netherlands. Methods The choice tasks presented respondents a hypothetical scenario of two policy packages, each compri ..read more

Abstract Background and objective Population-based estimates of the socioeconomic burden of multiple sclerosis (MS) are limited, especially regarding primary healthcare. This study aimed to estimate the excess costs of people with MS that could be attributed to their MS, including primary healthcare. Methods An observational study was conducted of the 2806 working-aged people with MS in Stockholm, Sweden and 28,060 propensity score matched references without MS. Register-based resource use was quantified for 2018. Annual healthcare costs (primary, specialised outpatient, and inpatient healthca ..read more

Abstract Objective This study assessed patient-reported health-related quality of life (HRQoL) using two generic preference-based measures in Chinese patients with spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA) and identified demographic and clinical determinants of health utility scores in this population. Methods This study used cross-sectional data of 212 Chinese patients with SBMA who completed both the EQ-5D and SF-6D. Association between response to EQ-5D and SF-6D dimensions was examined using Spearman’s correlation coefficient, and the association between the two utility scores was assessed ..read more

Abstract Increasing prevalence of obesity (BMI > 30) is a pressing public health issue in the Czech Republic as well as world-wide, affecting up to 2.1 billion people. Increasing trend in the prevalence of obesity in adults and children generates large social costs. The main aim of this study is to estimate both direct and indirect costs of obesity in the Czech Republic. Social costs of obesity are estimated using the cost-of-illness approach. Direct costs (healthcare utilization costs and costs of pharmacotherapy of 20 comorbidities) are estimated using the top-down approach, while indirec ..read more

Abstract Objectives To evaluate the association between health and social care costs and early start of anti-dementia medication in a nationwide cohort of Finnish Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients. Methods The cohort included 7454 Finnish AD patients who had their first AD diagnosis in 2012 and lived at home at the time of diagnosis. Data were collected retrospectively from the Finnish national health and social care registers. The primary outcome was 2-year cumulative direct costs after the incident AD diagnosis. The exploratory variable was early anti-dementia medication start (anti-dementia ..read more