Health economics and outcomes research

Retirees meet a number of problems as they are growing older which needs persistent attention. Hence, without a doubt, the outcomes of the financial markets influence the choices that people make when nearing retirement. In our model, the stock price dynamics follow Geometric Brownian motion (GBM) and our goal was to optimize the expected discounted utility of consumption and terminal wealth whilst considering health expenses. The investment return process comprises risk free asset and risky assets, and the health expenses...

OBJECTIVES: The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), enacted in 2022, brings substantial reforms to the US healthcare system, particularly regarding Medicare. A key aspect includes the introduction of Medicare price negotiation. The objective of this commentary is to explore the implications of the IRA for US pharmaceutical companies, with a specific focus on the role of real-world evidence (RWE) in the context of Medicare reforms. METHODS: The commentary employs a qualitative analysis of the IRA's provisions related to healthcare and pharmaceutical regulation, focusing on how these reforms change the evidence requirements for pharmaceutical companies...

BACKGROUND: People experiencing homelessness co-occurring with substance use or offending ('severe and multiple disadvantage' SMD) often have high levels of poor oral health and related health behaviours (particularly, substance use, smoking, poor diet). This systematic review aimed to assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of interventions in adults experiencing SMD to improve oral health and related health behaviours. METHODS AND FINDINGS: From inception to February 2023, five bibliographic databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and Scopus) and grey literature were searched...

BACKGROUND: Pharmacological prophylaxis during hospital admission can reduce the risk of acquired blood clots (venous thromboembolism) but may cause complications, such as bleeding. Using a risk assessment model to predict the risk of blood clots could facilitate selection of patients for prophylaxis and optimise the balance of benefits, risks and costs. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to identify validated risk assessment models and estimate their prognostic accuracy, evaluate the cost-effectiveness of different strategies for selecting hospitalised patients for prophylaxis, assess the feasibility of using efficient research methods and estimate key parameters for future research...

BACKGROUND: Effective financing mechanisms are essential to ensuring that people can access and utilize effective treatments and services. Financing mechanisms are needed not only to pay for the delivery of those treatments and services, but also ancillary costs, while also keeping care affordable. AIMS: This article highlights key areas of the interest of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) in supporting applied health economics and health care financing research...

BACKGROUND: Recovery colleges provide personalised educational mental health support for people who self-refer. The research evidence supporting them is growing, with key components and the positive experiences of attendees reported. However, the quantitative outcome evidence and impact on economic outcomes is limited. AIMS: To evaluate the impact of attending a UK recovery college for students who receive a full educational intervention. METHOD: This is a pre- and post-intervention study, with predominantly quantitative methods...

Although alcohol and other drug use is increasingly the focus of policy and research efforts, there are challenges identifying and applying evidence-based strategies to minimise harms for alcohol and other drugs in health care and community settings. These challenges include limited available research, variability across settings, and lack of 'fit' between research evidence and their intended settings. In this commentary, we describe a novel approach to develop and evaluate tailored, sustainable strategies to enhance the uptake of evidence-based activities into health services and community settings...

Breast cancer is the most recurrently identified and one of women's prominent causes of death. Currently, researchers have turned their focus on natural chemicals from synthetic chemicals due to their environmental, economic, and health benefits. Considering this, the medicinal plant Leucas aspera was chosen for the current study. The aim of this study was to isolate and characterize secondary metabolites from L. aspera and determine the antiproliferative and antimigratory activities in the MDA-MB-231 cell line under in vitro conditions...

BACKGROUND: The use of multidisciplinary treatment programs in out-of-hospital healthcare is a new area of research. Little is known about the benefits of this method in the management of discharged patients undergoing cervical spondylosis surgery. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore the effect of a contracted-based, multidisciplinary follow-up plan in patients after cervical spondylosis surgery. METHODS: This non-blinded non-randomized controlled study was conducted with 88 patients (44 in the intervention group, 44 in the control group)...

BACKGROUND: Climate change and mental health outcomes are two of the most pressing global crises. Despite the increasing global mental health burden, climate-related mental health outcomes research is nascent and isolated, with substantial gaps across regions and disciplines. Connecting Climate Minds is a global initiative connecting researchers, experts, and people with lived experience of adverse mental health outcomes to identify regional research needs and create a community to support improved climate-related mental health outcomes...

BACKGROUND: Planetary health equity (PHE) is defined here as equitable good health in a stable Earth system. PHE is arguably in crisis. Human-made climate change is damaging global populations through hotter temperatures, wildfires, and more severe and frequent storms, flooding, and landslides. A tsunami of health inequities will result from this, as pre-existing health conditions and inequities in living and working conditions ensure that socially disadvantaged groups and people in low-income and middle-income countries are disproportionately affected by climate change...

BACKGROUND: Audit and Feedback (A&F) interventions based on quality indicators have been shown to lead to significant improvements in compliance with evidence-based care including de-adoption of low-value practices (LVPs). Our primary aim was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of adding a hypothetical A&F module targeting LVPs for trauma admissions to an existing quality assurance intervention targeting high-value care and risk-adjusted outcomes. A secondary aim was to assess how certain A&F characteristics might influence its cost-effectiveness...

INTRODUCTION: Among youth with type 1 diabetes (T1D), longitudinal poor glycemic control is associated with adverse socioeconomic conditions at the neighborhood level. Child Opportunity Index (COI), which encompasses measures of education, health, environment, social, and economic factors, is associated with obesity in youth but has not been evaluated in youth with new-onset T1D or type 2 diabetes (T2D). We hypothesized that lower COI would be associated with adverse clinical outcomes at diabetes diagnosis, and due to differing risk factors and pathophysiology, that youth with new-onset T2D would have lower COI than youth with T1D...

BACKGROUND: Fundus photography is the most important examination in eye disease screening. A facilitated self-service eye screening pattern based on the fully automatic fundus camera was developed in 2022 in Shanghai, China; it may help solve the problem of insufficient human resources in primary health care institutions. However, the service quality and residents' preference for this new pattern are unclear. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to compare the service quality and residents' preferences between facilitated self-service eye screening and traditional manual screening and to explore the relationships between the screening service's quality and residents' preferences...

OBJECTIVES: Management of hypotension is a fundamental part of pediatric critical care, with cardiovascular support in the form of fluids or vasoactive drugs offered to every hypotensive child. However, optimal blood pressure (BP) targets are unknown. The PRotocolised Evaluation of PermiSSive BP Targets Versus Usual CaRE (PRESSURE) trial aims to evaluate the clinical and cost-effectiveness of a permissive mean arterial pressure (MAP) target of greater than a fifth centile for age compared with usual care...

INTRODUCTION: Bone-anchored prostheses (BAP) are an advanced reconstructive surgical approach for individuals who had transfemoral amputation and are unable to use the conventional socket-suspension systems for their prostheses. Access to this technology has been limited in part due to the lag between the start of a new procedure and the availability of evidence that is required before making decisions about widespread provision. This systematic review presents as a single resource up-to-date information on aspects most relevant to decision makers, i...

Urban flooding is recognized as a nature-driven disaster shaped by inherent factors such as climate, morphology, and hydrology, affecting vulnerability and flood exposure. While these factors play a paramount role, significant psychosocial intricate drivers are acknowledged, though they are challenging for prediction and assessment. This study delves into these drivers in a specific context, aiming to draw conclusions that extend beyond. It undertakes a comprehensive approach, integrating cloud-based Radar flood detection, analysis of flood causation patterns, and geostatistical analysis of a social survey based on cross-synthesis, contingency analysis, and structural equation modeling...

BACKGROUND: Financial toxicity, defined as both the objective financial burden and subjective financial distress from a cancer diagnosis and its treatment, is a topic of interest in the assessment of the quality of life of patients with cancer and their families. Current evidence implicates financial toxicity in psychosocial, economic and other harms, leading to suboptimal cancer outcomes along the entire trajectory of diagnosis, treatment, supportive care, survivorship and palliation...

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified discussions on emergency vaccine deployment strategies, with current perspectives often neglecting extensive community involvement in ethical, logistical and political aspects. Existing social science literature predominantly delves into factors influencing trust, overlooking the untapped potential for community engagement.Our study examines community preparedness in Sierra Leone's Kambia District, exploring diverse viewpoints on vaccine deployment strategies, emphasising Ebola and COVID-19 vaccinations...

BACKGROUND: 1.8 million Veterans are estimated to need legal services, such as for housing eviction prevention, discharge upgrades, and state and federal Veterans benefits. While having one's legal needs met is known to improve one's health and its social determinants, many Veterans' legal needs remain unmet. Public Law 116-315 enacted in 2021 authorizes VA to fund legal services for Veterans (LSV) by awarding grants to legal service providers including nonprofit organizations and law schools' legal assistance programs...