Distributional consequences of including survivor costs in economic evaluations.

ABSTRACT: Medical interventions that increase life expectancy of patients result in additional consumption of non-medical goods and services in 'added life years'. This paper focuses on the distributional consequences across socio-economic groups of including these costs in cost effectiveness analysis. In that context, it also highlights the role of remaining quality of life and household economies of scale. Data from a Dutch household spending survey was used to estimate non-medical consumption and household size by age and educational attainment. Estimates of non-medical consumption and household size were combined with life tables to estimate what the impact of including non-medical survivor costs would be on the incremental cost effectiveness ratio (ICER) of preventing a death at a certain age.

SUBMITTER: Kellerborg K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9292358 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature