Evaluación económica del empleo de terapias farmacológicas para la cesación en el hábito tabáquico

[Cost-benefit of medical advice for quitting smoking in the Region of Murcia]

OBJECTIVE

To perform a cost-benefit analysis of brief medical advice to quit smoking in the Region of Murcia.

DESIGN

A cost-benefit analysis is performed on brief medical advice to quit smoking versus non-intervention. A Markov model is used to estimate the costs (€ in 2014), under the perspective of the National Health System, and health outcomes. These are measured in quality-adjusted life years (QALY). The time horizon of the analysis is 20years, and costs and health outcomes were discounted at 3%. A univariate and multivariate deterministic sensitivity analysis is performed.

LOCATION

Region of Murcia.

PARTICIPANTS

Smokers in the Region of Murcia.

INTERVENTIONS

Brief advice to quit smoking.

KEY MEASURES

Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYs).

RESULTS

With a time horizon of 5years (2018), the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) would be €172,400 per QALY gained; at 10years (2023) the ICER was €30,300 per QALY gained; and, for the maximum horizon considered by the model, the ICER was €7,260 per QALY gained.

CONCLUSIONS

Brief advice intervention is more efficient in the long-term than in the short-term and, depending on the Spanish cost-benefit threshold, public funding for this intervention would be recommended.

Modelling a budgetary impact analysis for funding drug-based smoking cessation therapies for patients with major depressive disorder in Spain

BACKGROUND

Smoking is associated with high healthcare resource utilisation and cost to society. Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) exhibit high susceptibility to nicotine dependence. Varenicline, bupropion and nicotine replacement therapy are all indicated for smoking cessation; however funding by the Spanish national health system (SNHS) is limited. We modelled a budgetary impact analysis (BIA) to estimate the impact of the SNHS funding drug-based therapies for smoking cessation in smokers with MDD.

METHODS

The BIA compared the current unfunded scenario versus a funded scenario (varenicline, bupropion, nicotine replacement therapy combined with medical follow-up and counselling) using the Spanish SNHS and societal perspectives. The BIA design was a hybrid model using a decision tree algorithm (population size: smokers with MDD) and Markov chains (smoking cessation attempts) over a 5-year horizon. Smoking cessation drug efficacy was derived from clinical trials, and smoking cessation costs avoided were taken from an analysis of the Spanish National Health Survey. Results were shown as incremental cost savings. Scenarios and threshold univariate sensitivity analyses tested model robustness.

RESULTS

The funded scenario resulted in an increase of 43,478 cessation attempts and 8930 fewer smokers after 5 years compared to the unfunded scenario. The cost of funding was €25.3 million and costs avoided were €26.5 million. There was a cumulative 5-year incremental cost saving of €1.2 million to Spanish society. Results were robust using alternative scenarios.

CONCLUSIONS

Funding smoking cessation drugs in patients with MDD is of economic benefit to Spain and could produce net savings from the third year of implementation.

Budgetary impact analysis on funding smoking-cessation drugs in patients with COPD in Spain

The aim of the study was to assess the budgetary impact of funding smoking-cessation drugs in COPD patients in Spain. A hybrid model (cohort and Markov) was developed for a 5-year time horizon. Only approved cessation drugs (varenicline, bupropion, and nicotine replacement therapy) were considered. Irrespective of the drug, the model allowed for an initial cessation attempt, and up to three additional attempts in case of failure or smoking relapse during a 5-year period. Drug effectiveness was based on controlled clinical trials. National Health System perspective was applied; therefore, only medical resources were included. The pharmaceutical costs for smoking-cessation drugs, extra medical follow-up as a consequence of public reimbursement, and annual savings for health costs avoided due to stopping smoking were considered. The model estimated that 17,756 COPD patients would stop smoking if public funding was available, compared with 1,303 without reimbursement. In the reimbursement scenario, the savings accounted for a total of €48.0 million, compensating for expenditures on drugs and medical visits (€40.4 million). Accumulated total additional savings in 5 years (€4.3 million) compared with the scenario without reimbursement was shown. Sensitivity analyses supported the results robustness. Funding smoking-cessation drugs in COPD patients seems to be an efficient option and a National Health System drug reimbursement scheme would represent a cost-saving policy in Spain.

[Economic evaluation of public health interventions]

The scarcity of resources available to meet the growing demand for healthcare services has increased interest in economic evaluation as a tool to inform resource allocation. The aim of economic evaluation is to compare various alternatives for action, in terms of their costs and effects on health, by using several techniques: cost minimization analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, cost-utility analysis, and cost-benefit analysis. Irrespective of the methodology used, any assessment must include scope of the problem, selection of alternatives for comparison, explication of the perspective of analysis and the time horizon, measurement and evaluation of costs and health effects, presentation of results, and sensitivity analysis. In Spain, evaluation of currently ongoing preventive interventions, and adherence to the existing economic evaluation guidelines by researchers would be desirable.

Economic evaluation of pharmaco- and behavioral therapies for smoking cessation: a critical and systematic review of empirical research

Economic evaluations are an important tool to improve our understanding of the costs and effects of health care services and to create sustainable health care systems. This article critically assesses empirical evidence from economic evaluations of pharmaco- and behavioral therapies for smoking cessation. A comprehensive literature review of PubMed and the British National Health Service Economic Evaluation Database was conducted. The search identified 15 articles on nicotine-based pharmacotherapies, 12 articles on nonnicotine based pharmacotherapies, no articles on selegiline, and 10 articles on brief counseling for smoking cessation treatment. Results show that both pharmaco- and behavioral therapies for smoking cessation are cost-effective or even cost-saving. The review highlights several shortcomings in methodology and a lack of standardization of current economic evaluations. Efforts to improve methodology will help make future studies more comparable and increase the evidence base so that such evaluations can be more useful to public health practitioners and policy makers.