Education plus exercise for persistent gluteal tendinopathy improves quality of life and is cost-effective compared with corticosteroid injection and wait and see: economic evaluation of a randomised trial.

QUESTION: For patients with gluteal tendinopathy, what is the cost utility from health system and societal perspectives of three management approaches: education plus exercise, ultrasound-guided corticosteroid injection or wait and see?

DESIGN: Economic evaluation alongside a three-group, parallel, randomised clinical efficacy trial.

PARTICIPANTS: People aged between 35 and 70 years with image-confirmed gluteal tendinopathy were recruited via advertisements.

INTERVENTIONS: Education plus exercise, consisting of 14 visits to a physiotherapist, with detailed instruction on tendinopathy management, twice weekly supervised exercise sessions, daily home exercises, a handout and a CD; corticosteroid injection, consisting of one ultrasound-guided injection and a handout on general tendon care; and 'wait and see', consisting of one visit to a physiotherapist with assurance and advice on staying active whilst respecting pain.

OUTCOME MEASURES: Economic outcome measures were quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) calculated from EuroQol EQ-5D-3L using Australian population preference weights, and total economic costs obtained from participant-reported data collected over the 1-year follow-up period. Missing data (<12% per group) were imputed. Linear regression was used to estimate incremental QALYs and costs between interventions; uncertainty was assessed by calculating 90% confidence intervals, cost-effectiveness acceptability curves and confidence ellipses.

RESULTS: A total of 204 individuals (82% women) were enrolled. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratio favoured education plus exercise over corticosteroid injection (AU$12,719 and $5,592 on societal and health system perspectives, respectively) and over wait and see ($29,258 and $3,444 on societal and health system perspectives, respectively). Complete case analysis and varying the direct intervention costs did not change the (imputed analysis) results, with the exception that corticosteroid injection was less cost-effective.

CONCLUSION: Education plus exercise for gluteal tendinopathy improves health-related quality of life and is cost-effective compared with corticosteroid injection and wait and see for treating gluteal tendinopathy.

REGISTRATION: ACTRN12612001126808.