Published: 05-06-2017

The heoro.com database is updated daily from our systematic search of PubMed for papers relevant to health economics and outcomes research.

To keep our users up-to-date with the new additions, we regularly tweet a summary of some of these new additions, which you can see by following us at @heoroCom.

In this blog, we list some of the key papers that have been added to the database during June 2017.

PRO studies

• Changes in SF-36 values have a different pattern in Dutch and Chinese patients in the first year after traumatic brain injury, with the differences not fully explained by cultural factors. Cnossen 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Roland-Morris and Oswestry disability index scores, EQ-5D and SF-12 values all correlate with functional disability scores in adults with lumbar degenerative disc disease. Stienen 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• The BC-PROM instrument has been validated as a reliable way of assessing treatment response in women with breast cancer in China. Hu 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• A capsaicin 8% patch can reduce numerical rating scale pain scores and improve EQ-5D values by a mean of 0.199 from week 2 to week 52 in adults with non-diabetic neuropathic pain, including post-herpetic neuralgia. Mankowski 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• An item response analysis of 5 instruments used for depression found that the best discrimination was from low mood, suicidality and worthlessness in Chinese adults. Zhao 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Playing competitive arm rehabilitation computer games improves motivation, exercise intensity and quality of life in adults with chronic arm impairment. Gorsic 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Once-daily aceclofenac controlled-release is no more effective than twice-daily aceclofenac at improving pain VAS scores, EQ-5D and Oswestry Disability Index scores in low back pain in Korea, but causes more adverse events. Yang 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Utility values, determined from the UK general population using time trade-off interviews, were 0.851 for conventional blood glucose monitoring in insulin-dependent diabetes and 0.882 for "flash" non-invasive monitoring. Matza 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Standard Gamble joint utility values were determined for common comorbidities, including back pain, for substance use disorder among US adults. Wittenberg 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

•  The Injection-Treatment Acceptance Questionnaire, I-TAQ, has been validated in patients receiving subcutaneous injections of alirocumab for hypercholesterolaemia. Tatlock 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Performing unicompartment knee arthroplasty as day-case reduces anxiety (HADS) and increases satisfaction on the first postoperative day with similar pain scores to fast-track inpatient surgery, while 30 day outcomes including EQ-5D, KOOS, OKS scores were the same. Hoorntje 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Quality of life scores on WHOQOL-BREF, #CES-D depression scores improve from baseline during the 3 months after living donor hepatectomy in Taiwan. Wang 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Pain scores and morphine use are lower and adverse events fewer when sciatic nerve block is added to femoral nerve block for total knee arthroplasty. Zhang 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• An RCT found that a generic care pathway for elderly people who needed home care after hospital admission did not improve SF-36 quality of life scores or reduce resource use compared with usual care in Norway. Rosstad 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• An RCT in the UK found that caregiver-led cognitive stimulation therapy did not improve patient or caregiver quality of life scores on the SF-12, QOL-AD and ADAS-Cog instruments compared with usual care, but may have improved patient-caregiver relationships. Orrell 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• The Glasgow Outcome Scale has been mapped to EQ-5D preference values using the UK tariff for adults after traumatic brain injury. Ward Fuller 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• A discrete choice experiment among the general public and policymakers in the Netherlands found that existing, reimbursed treatments were valued more highly than equivalent newer ones that had not yet been reimbursed, suggesting that ending reimbursement is more difficult than refusing to reimburse a new technology. van der Wetering 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Botulinum toxin A improved pain scores measured with a visual analogie scale, the McGill Pain Inventory and the WHOQOL-BREF more than placebo in a RCT of people with spinal cord injury in China. Li 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• A study of healthcare workers who cared for patients with severe disabilities in France found that they had lower physical and social quality of life scores but higher psychological scores than controls. Rousseau 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• An RCT found that probiotics improved Mini Rhinoconjunctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire scores more than placebo during the allergy season in US adults with seasonal allergic rhinoconjunctivitis. Dennis-Wall 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• An RCT found that ipilimumab prolonged progression-free survival in adults with Stage III melanoma without adversely affecting quality of life measured with the EORTC QLQ-C30 tool. Coens 2017 Go to paper on Pubmed

• A systematic review of PRO tools used in total knee arthroplasty studies concluded that only the Oxford Knee Score, WOMAC and the Work, Osteoarthritis or Joint Replacement Questionnaire had been shown to be valid. Gagnier 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• An RCT found that aromatherapy with essential oils and acupressure massage both improved Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index scores and SF-36 values in career women in Taiwan compared with placebo oil or lavender oil. Kao 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• A systematic review concluded that Tai Chi may improve quality of life, balance, gait, fatigue and depression in adults with multiple sclerosis. Taylor 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• An RCT found that 1 hour a week massage therapy for 4 weeks improved HADS anxiety and Nijmegen hyperventilation questionnaire scores but made no difference to HADS depression and WHOQOL-HIV overall quality of life scores in adults with HIV infection in Belgium. Gregory 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• An RCT found that coach-led meditation was no more effective than a meditation CD for reducing anxiety and depression in people undergoing radiotherapy for head and neck cancer in the US, with both approaches improving HADS and Emotional Distress Thermometer scores from baseline. Boxleitner 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• A systematic review concluded that antidepressants improve function, measured using the Sheehan Disability Scale, in major depression, with an early response being a better predictor of improved function than disease severity. Sheehan 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• A Canadian study found a greater decline in SF-36 quality of life values in men given brachytherapy for high and intermediate risk prostate cancer than in those receiving dose-escalated external beam radiotherapy. Rodda 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• A systematic review identified more than 50 PRO tools that have been used in studies of radiotherapy or brachytherapy for prostate cancer, of which very few are recommended as being accurate and valid. O'Callaghan 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Worse Expanded Prostate Cancer Index quality of life scores were found in men who received neoadjuvant androgen deprivation therapy as well as  radiotherapy or brachytherapy for their early prostate cancer, compared with those receiving just radiation therapy. Gay 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Women report worse Peripheral Artery Questionnaire quality of life scores than men with similar degrees of peripheral artery disease, measured as the ankle:brachial index, in an international study. Roumia 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• A 3.2 point improvement in the Indian Visual Function Questionnaire was associated with a 5-letter improvement in visual acuity in patients receiving the antimetabolites methotrexate or mycophenolate for uveitis; treatment improved acuity and quality of life but worsened SF-36 mental scores. Niemeyer 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

•  A better quality of life, measured with the EORTC QLQ-C30 and QLQ-BR23 questionnaires, was found overall in French women who had immediate breast reconstruction after mastectomy compared with those who had mastectomy alone for breast cancer. Dauplat 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Children with glaucoma in the UK report impaired quality of life on the Cardiff Visual Ability Questionnaire for Children, Impact of Vision Impairment for Children and PedsQL questionnaires, although the impact was less than that reported by their parents. Dahlmann-Noor 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

 

Costs and resource use studies

• No difference was seen in costs, resource use, length of stay and pain scores when patients undergo video-assisted surgery (VATS) compared with thoracotomy for lung cancer in the USA. Rodgers-Fischl 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Adding crizotinib to standard care for non-small cell lung cancer in Thailand increases costs by 20,755 THB per patient per month in the first year, and by 8,834 THB per patient per month in the third year. Thongprasert 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Standardised rates of readmission to intensive care units in the Netherlands range from 0.14 to 2.67, with post-ICU mortality rates ranging from 0.07 to 2.07. ICU discharge policies do not seem to influence the outcome. van Sluisveld 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• No immediate cause is found in 72% of adults presenting with chest pain and no prior cardiovascular disease diagnosis; 95% of these will still have had no cardiovascular diagnosis after 6 months. Jordan 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Early surgery for hand enchondromas increases the speed of return to work in China; the presence of pathological fractures increases the costs of care. Zhou 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Home-based noninvasive ventilation reduces hospital admissions and saves both hospital and Payer costs in severe COPD in the USA. Coughlin 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Cancers are more expensive to treat in children than in adolescents or adults in Canada, with leukaemia the most expensive cancer; 69 to 74% of costs are due to hospitalisations. de Oliveira 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Although drug acquisition costs were higher for nab-paclitaxel + gemcitabine compared with FOLFIRINOX for metastatic pancreatic cancer in the USA, total costs, hospital admissions and supportive care costs were lower. Kim 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Total medical care costs increase once insulin therapy has become established in US adults with type 2 diabetes compared with the initial year of therapy, however total health costs are lower in adults who are adherent to therapy compared with those who have interrupted insulin therapy. Kalirai 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Establishing Primary Care Physician networks in the Netherlands for out of hours care has reduced emergency department attendances by 13-22%; the networks now have 245 contacts/1,000 citizens. Smits 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• An antibiotic stewardship program in a South African hospital reduced antibiotic use, especially IV antibiotics, saving ZAR 3.2 million over 4 years, with no increase in mortality or readmissions. Boyles 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Hospitalisation costs are consistently 37-40% higher for US patients undergoing carotid artery stenting compared with endarterectomy, after stratifying for presence of symptoms, surgical specialty, type of costs and geographical region. Obeid 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• The use of robotic surgery for gastroesophageal reflux increased operative time but led to the same mortality and other outcomes as conventional laparoscopic fundoplication in Denmark. Jensen 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Compared with matched controls, the additional healthcare costs associated with treatment for cervical cancer in the US are $50,846 in the first year and $27,656 in the second year. Lairson 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Robotic hepatectomy reduced morbidity, length of hospital and ICU stay and total healthcare costs compared with a standard open approach in the US. Daskalaki 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• In-person self-management therapy is no more effective for promoting weight loss than an online course or giving out printed materials in severely obese patients in Canada, but costs 50 to 200 times more. Padwal 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• A multimodal pain management strategy that included periarticular liposomal bupivacaine reduced hospital length of stay compared with usual care with similar satisfaction scores after arthroplasty in the US. Jinnah 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Length of stay and duration of surgery were shorter with proximal femoral nail-antirotation than cemented hemiarthroplasty for intertrochanteric femoral fractures in Turkey. Esen 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• An RCT in France found that providing self tests for Chlamydia infection online increased uptake in young adults by three-fold compared with usual primary care screening; 8.3% of women and 4.4% of men who were tested were positive for the infection. Kersaudy-Rahib 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• An analysis of the management of  STEMI in China between 2009-10 and 2015 found an increase in the rate of primary PCI from 3.6% to 10.5% over that period, a doubling of hospital costs, and a non-significant reduction in in-hospital mortality from 13% to 10%. Li 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• In Romania, the use of robotic surgery improved outcomes in patients having hysterectomy for cancer, gastrectomy, difficult splenectomy or rectal resection, but the higher costs and similar outcomes meant that laparoscopy was preferred for hysterectomy for benign diseases or easy splenectomies. Manciu 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Early laparoscopic cholecystectomy for people with acute cholecystitis in Turkey led to longer overall length of hospital admission than when cholecystectomy was delayed for 6 to 8 weeks, wioth a non-significant increase in complication rates. Acar 2017 Go to paper on Pubmed

• Analysis of community-based tuberculosis management programs in Myanmar found a range of approaches, with an average cost of US$215 to US$1,215 per patient who completes treatment. Han 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Laparoscopic surgery for colorectal cancer leads to similar outcomes and resource use in elderly patients aged 75 years and older as in younger patients in Japan. Kazama 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Higher resource use and healthcare costs were found for patients with advanced basal cell skin carcinoma compared with early disease in the US, with radiotherapy costs being the main driver of the difference. Migden 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

 

 Economic models

• Ultrasound screening for non-alcoholic fatty liver is cost-effective in adults in Thailand with metabolic syndrome who are undergoing an intensive weigh management program, with an ICER of USD985/QALY gained in a 50 year old adult. Phisalprapa 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Adding an acellular dermal matrix increases costs of breast reconstruction by 35 to 48%; a direct-to-implant approach is cost-effective in South Africa and only 5% of patients had minor complications. Serrurier 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• A systematic review of 28 economic evaluations concluded that presenteeism costs were rarely included in economic analyses done from a societal perspective. Kigozi 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Nurse-led case management of elderly patients after myocardial infarction was cost-effective, with non-significantly increased EQ-5D values and QALYs but similar costs to usual care. Seidl 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• An economic evaluation finds that reverse total shoulder arthroplasty is cost-effective compared with hemiarthroplasty for complex proximal humeral fractures in the elderly in Canada. Osterhoff 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• The combination therapy sacubitril/valsartan would be cost-effective compared with enalapril in adults with heart failure in the Netherlands if the daily cost is less than 5.25 Euros. van der Pol 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

•  An economic model finds that transarterial radioembolization is cost-effective compared with sorafenib for intermediate and advanced hepatocellular carcinoma in Italy. Rognoni 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• A systematic review found that cryotherapy was cost-effective after rotator cuff repair, but the cost-effectiveness of physical therapies was still unclear. Dickinson 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• A model that combined efficiency frontiers and discrete choice experiments found that the new, non-interferon antiviral therapies for hepatitic C were cost-effective in Germany. Muhlbacher 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• A Diabetes Intense Medical Management clinic for patients with type 2 diabetes was cost-effective compared with usual primary care physician follow-up in the USA, with a return on investment of $9.01 for every $1 spent; the DIMM clinic increased QALYs at a lower cost than usual care. Hirsch 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Stratified individual risk-based screening for colorectal cancer is cost-effective compared with routine screening in the US, with costs of $18,342 to $23,961 per life-year gained at 60% to 80% compliance. Subramanian 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Extending prenatal HIV screening from high-risk groups to universal coverage in Israel, a low HIV prevalence country, would increase QALYs by 15 and decrease costs by $177,521 over a lifetime. Chowers 2017. Go to paper on PubMed

• A budget impact model predicts that adding a prolonged half-life recombinant factor VIII for haemophilia would increase the Payer budget by 1.4% for a population of 1 million, which would include 20 adults with haemophilia, but would prevent 124 bleeds costing $1891 each over 2 years. McMullen 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Increasing access to bariatric surgery for obesity would be cost-effective in the UK, with an ICER of £7,129/QALY gained overall. Gulliford 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• A systematic review of economic evaluations found that it is still unclear whether trial of labour after previous caesarian section is cost-effective compared with repeat caesarian section. Rogers 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• A systematic review of economic evaluations in COPD concluded that most models do not adequately account for disease heterogeneity or comorbidities. Zafari 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• An economic model found that dose-dense adjuvant chemotherapy was cost-effective compared with standard regimens in ovarian cancer in the US, with an ICER of $8,074 per progression-free life year saved. Seagle 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• An economic model concluded that taxes and subsidies to promote a healthy diet in Australia could avert 470,000 DALYs and save AU$3.4 billion in healthcare costs, with the greatest impact from a sugar tax. Cobiac 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• A cost-utility model found that deferiprone was more cost-effective than deferoxamine or deferasirox for chronic iron overload in beta-thalassaemia in Italy. Pepe 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• An online multimodal therapy program for unilateral cerebral palsy in children in Australia costs AU$3,078 to AU$4,191 per responder compared with usual care, with high satisfaction rates. Comans 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• An evaluation of HIV prevention strategies for intravenous drug users in the US concluded that opiate agonist therapy was most cost-effective, with an ICER of $18,000/QALY gained over 20 years, while pre-exposure prophylaxis was unlikely to be cost-effective. Bernard 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

•  A model found that the most cost-effective strategy for CT screening for lung cancer in Canada was an annual screen of adults aged 55 to 75 years who had 40 pack-years or more smoking history. Ten Haaf 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

•  Outpatient knee arthroscopy could reduce costs by 55% compared with in-patient surgery but have similar outcomes in Slovenia. Blatnik 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Active screening of household contacts of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis was cost-effective in Peru compared with passive case finding, with an ICER of $2155 per DALY averted. Shah 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• An economic model based on an RCT found that midwife-led psychoeducational counselling was no more effective than usual care at improving EQ-5D values or reducing costs in women with fear of childbirth in Australia. Turkstra 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Screening for Helicobacter pylori to prevent stomach cancer is cost-effective in New Zealand, especially in the Maori population, with an ICER of US$16,500/QALY overall and US$8,000/QALY in Maori groups. Teng 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Providing acupuncture for employees with pain does not reduce healthcare costs and is not cost-effective in the US compared with usual care. Borah 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• A cost-benefit model concluded that the greatest return on investment during an influenza pandemic in the US, with limited vaccine availability, would be to vaccinate the high-risk groups, children aged 0 to 19 years and the elderly aged 65 and older. Dorratoltaj 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Oral miltefosine administered by caregivers using directly observed therapy (DOT) is cost-effective compared with IV meglumine antimoniate in treating cutaneous leishmaniasis in children in Colombia. Berger 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• A systematic meta-review concluded that self-management in asthma reduced healthcare resource use and improved asthma control, with the costs of the program offset by the savings from reduced healthcare use. Pinnock 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

 

 Mortality studies

• Early dialysis in elderly patients with end-stage renal disease does not reduce mortality compared with later initiation of dialysis in Korea after adjusting for propensity scores. Park 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• 31% of patients with in-hopsital cardiac arrest survive to discharge in Korea; BMI does not influence mortality rate. Gil 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Serum endotrophin level, a marker of collagen formation, independently predicted mortality rate in chronic kidney disease in the UK without also being an independent predictor of end-stage renal failure. Fenton 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• In-hospital mortality from septic shock averages at 36% in the US, but rose to almost 40% during periods of norepinephrine shortages, an adjusted odds ratio of 1.15. Vail 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• 30-day mortality was 59% in patients in China with acute kidney injury after cardiac surgery; fluid balance was the main predictor of survival. Wu 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Higher mortality was seen in adults with diastolic heart failure who had the highest homocysteine levels in Taiwan, with a hazard ratio of 1.90 compared with those in the lowest quartile, p for trend 0.026. Luo 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Three-year progression-free survival rates in Hodgkin's lymphoma were 91.4% with the BEACOPPextended regimen and 93% when rituximab was added, a non-significant improvement. Borchmann 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Treating adults with non-paracetamol-related acute liver failure with N-acetylcysteine reduced mortality and the need for liver transplant in Egypt compared with usual care. Darweesh 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Intraoperative cardiac arrest occurred in 1.05 per 10,000 patients having surgery for cancer in China between 2005 and 2014, with mortality rates of 0.56/10,000. Han 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• An analysis of the SEER database in the US found that radiotherapy did not improve survival in adrenocortical carcinoma. Luo 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• A meta-analysis found that adding targeted therapy to chemotherapy improves response rates and progression-free survival but does not increase overall survival in biliary tract cancer. Zhuang 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• In the Danish general population, those with a 50% higher plasma urate level had a significantly higher risk of developing cancer after 3.9 years (adjusted HR 1.11, 95% CI, 1.05-1.18) or mortality after 4.9 years (HR 1.07, 1.01-1.13) than those with lower levels. Kobylecki 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• Deaths following trauma follow a bimodal distribution in Iran, with 46% of deaths occurring in the first 24 hours (especially from thoracic injuries and gunshot wounds), and a second peak at 7 to 28 days, especially following road traffic accidents. Abbasi 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• A high plasma fibrinogen level independently predicts advanced disease and low survival in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma in China. Zhang 2017 Go to paper on PubMed

• In a cohort of haematological patients in China who acquired nosocomial E coli bacteraemia during their admission, 15% developed septic shock, with a 30-day mortality of 22%. Ma 2017 Go to paper on PubMed