Published: 01-04-2020

We update the heoro.com database every day with new studies relevant to health economics and outcomes research. In this blog we summarise some of the key studies added throughout April 2020.

Studies reporting utility values

• SF-36 MCS scores improved more after greater weight loss with liraglutide with or without behavioural therapy than  behavioural therapy alone in obese adults in the USA. Chao 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• Aerobic plus strength-training exercise significantly improved SF-36 and FACT scores in breast cancer survivors with arthralgia due to aromatase inhibitors in the USA. Baglia 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• Mean change in EQ-VAS scores from baseline to 9 weeks were 10.4 and 21.6 in children with hereditary angioedema receiving human C1 inhibitor prophylaxis, above the minimal important difference. Aygoren-Pursun 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• EQ-VAS scores were lower in adults with hypertension compared with those without hypertension in any age group in China, with a greater difference in scores in women than in men. Qin 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• Patient-assigned utility values were derived from patients in Hungary with pemphigus vulgaris or foliaceus using composite time trade-off. Hadju 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• SF-36 PCS and MCS scores were significantly lower after total pancreatectomy than population norms in Italy and the USA; 30-day mortality was 2.1%. Pulvirenti 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• Toclizumab improved SF-36 and FACIT-F scores compared with placebo in patients with giant cell arteritis; scores were comparable to population norms by 52 weeks. Strand 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• EQ-5D, SF-6D and SF-36 scores were significantly lower in patients with systemic sclerosis than other rheumatic diseases or population norms in Korea. Park 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• EQ-5D utilities were negatively associated with obesity (-0.024), female sex (-0.011) and older ages in the general population of Ghana. Lartey 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• A societal value set of EQ-5D-5L utilities was developed for the US adult population; 20% of all predicted health state scores were worse than dead (<0). Pickard 2019 Go to paper on PubMed 
• Health state utilites were developed for adults with Huntington's disease in 12 European countries based on SF-6D scores. Hawton 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• A systematic review found that utilties in adults with epilepsy were higher with direct methods (standard gamble 0.93, time trade-off 0.92) than indirect methods (EQ-5D-5L 0.72 to 0.86), HUI mark 3 (0.52 to 0.71) or VAS (68.0 to 79.8). Foster 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• A systematic review found the mean decrease in SF-36, -12 or -8 scores was -1.55% for each additional comorbidity a patient had, and WHOQOL-BREF scores fell by 4.37% for each extra comorbidity. Makovski 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• A systematic review found that all domains of the SF-36 were lower in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus than healthy controls, especially the physical role function score. Wang 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• The EQ-5D-5L had superior construct validity, informativity and discriminatory power than the EQ-5D-3L in people waiting for total hip or knee arthroplasty in Canada. Jin 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• EQ-5D utility values were on average 0.347 points lower in adults with hip osteoarthritis and 0.295 points lower with knee osteoarthritis than the age-matched general population in Spain. Martin-Fernandez 2020 Go to paper on PubMed

Studies validating a PRO instrument 

• A cut-off score of 75.2 on the International Hip Outcome Tool (iHOT-12) was established as the minimum target for patient satisfaction with their hip joint 1 year after arthroscopy in the USA. Kivlan 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• The EORTC QLQ-C30 and QLQ-HN35 were mapped to the EQ-5D to derive head and neck cancer-specific utilities in patients in the Netherlands. Beck 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• The Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) was mapped to the EQ-5D in people with anterior cruciate ligament injury in Sweden. Kiadaliri 2020 Go to paper on PubMed
• The ICECAP-O was validated against the EQ-5D as a measure of well-being in caregivers of people with dementia in 8 European countries. Perry-Duxbury 2020 Go to paper on PubMed
• The 12-item short form version of the Vitiligo Impact Patient scale (VIPs) was validated in dark and fair-skinned people in the USA and France. Ezzedine 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• The Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire was validated against the Eating Disorders Inventory in female adolescents with eating disorders in Spain. Sepulveda 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• The ItchyQOL was validated as a measure of response to treatment for moderate to severe psoriasis in Germany. Stander 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• The WHOQOL-BREF was validated in medical students in Serbia. Ilic 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• A systematic review found that validation studies of cross-cultural adaptations of the Western Ontario rotator cuff index (WORC) in people with rotator cuff disorders were often inadequate. Furtado 2020 Go to paper on PubMed

Other PRO studies

• COPD disease severity scores on the electronic EXAcerbations of COPD Tool (EXACT) were stable over time in each patient  with COPD in Sweden but showed large interpatient variability. Germovsek 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• SF-36 pain scores were significantly worse in Parkinson's disease than the general population in Sweden, associated with worse balance and quality of life. Joseph 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• Patients with greater prognostic understanding of their advanced lung cancer in Belgium had worse emotional well-being and greater pain but no difference in mood than those with less understanding. Janssens 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• Children in India with treated primary congenital glaucoma have better quality of life scores than those with secondary childhood glaucoma despite comparable visual acuity and intraocular pressure. Gothwal 2020 Go to paper on PubMed

Studies reporting costs and resource use

• Mean length of stay in PICU was 5.25 days and in hospital was 14.8 days in children admitted to PICU with acute respiratory/CVD illnesses in India; mortality was 30.7%. Divecha 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• Mean costs and length of stay were lower in people with venous thromboembolism in Hong Kong treated with rivaroxaban than warfarin; 1-year recurrent VTE rates and bleeds were not significantly different. Fung 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• Mean annual direct costs of moderate-severe psoriasis in adults in Argentina were US$5326 per patient in 2018. Galimberti 2020 Go to paper on PubMed
• Mechanical ventilation was associated with a 25.8% increase in daily costs of ICU care in France and Germany. Kaier 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• The total fiscal value of lives lost to COVID-19 in China to 24th February 2020 was Int$924million, a mean Int$356,203 per death; 9% was due to deaths in people >65 years old. Kirigia 2020 Go to paper on PubMed
• Of 309 patients in cohort isolation in a community treatment centre in Korea for COVID-19, 7 required hospitalisation for worsening symptoms and 107 were discharged without complication. Park 2020 Go to paper on PubMed
• A systematic review found that indirect costs of ulcerative colitis comprised 35% of total costs, with presenteeism costs ranging from $1602 to $2947 per year. Constantin 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• Total treatment, follow-up and indirect costs were similar with stereotactic radiosurgery and open medial temporal lobectomy for epilepsy in the USA, with fewer seizures after open surgery. Langfitt 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• Mean annual healthcare costs  nearly doubled to $20,143 in the year after diagnosis of supraventricular tachycardia in adults >65 years in the USA, and trebled in those >65 years to $29,867. Sacks 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• Alcohol consumption in India between 2011 and 2050 may lead to 258 million life-years lost, 258 million QALYs lost, healthcare costs of alcohol-related disease of US$48.11 billion, societal costs of US$1967 billion and annual net economic loss of 1.45% of GDP. Jyani 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• Mean length of stay after acute coronary syndrome in New Zealand decreased from 7.8 days in 2006 to 6.7 days in 2016, with the greatest decrease in patients who had angiography. Wang 2020 Go to paper on PubMed

Economic evaluations

• Point of care commonly-used blood tests, ECGs and X-rays are usually cost-effective compared with standard investigations in the ER in South Africa by saving time and staff costs. Goldstein 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• Abatacept, tocilizumab and TNF inhibitors had greater QALY gains and lower costs than rituximab in people with rheumatoid arthritis in Finland. Huoponen 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• Niraparib was less costly and more effective than olaparib, rucaparib and routine surveillance as maintenance therapy in recurrent ovarian cancer in the USA. Guy 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• Alectinib has an ICER of €90,232/QALY and €115,334/life-year gained compared with crizotinib as first-line therapy in ALK+ advanced non-small-cell lung cancer in France. Sivignon 2020 Go to paper on PubMed
• A systematic review found that 86% of economic evaluations of single-payer healthcare financing in the USA concluded it would led to net savings in the first year and 91% over several years, mainly due to simplified payment administration. Cai 2020 Go to paper on PubMed
• A systematic review found that economic evaluations of interventions in ICU were sparse and often based on hypothetical cohorts for efficacy rather than clinical trial data. Wilcox 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• Prophylactic Zika virus vaccination of women of reproductive age would be cost-effective in the Americas at a cost per dose <$16, assuming a protection efficacy of 60 to 90%. Shoukat 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• Alectinib is unlikely to be cost-effective in untreated ALK-positive non-small-cell lung cancer in China, with an ICER of $52,827/QALY compared with crizotinib. Guan 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• A systematic review found that adding societal costs meant 11% of economic evaluations of non-cost-effective interventions for Alzheimer's dementia became cost-effective and 37% of those that were cost-effective became dominant. Pena-Longobardo 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• Strategies to enhance sick leave availability were generally cost-effective for seasonal and pandemic influenza in Norway: benefits were greatest where sick leave started within half a day of starting symptoms, economic losses occurred when sick leave started >2days from symptom onset. Edwards 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• The use of trastuzumab in early HER2-positive breast cancer in Australia had an ICER of A$132,537/DALY averted overall and A$35,290/DALY in women aged <40 years with a tumour size >40mm. Doan 2019 Go to paper on PubMed

Studies reporting mortality rates and trends

• 6-month survival in patients receiving ECMO for ARDS internationally was 61%; no association between mortality and ventilator settings in first 2 days of ECMO. Schmidt 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• Mortality in adults aged >60yr in the first year after hip fracture in Germany was >25%, then 7 to 9% per year; mortality was higher in men with comorbidity and lower Barthel Index and Mini-Mental State Examination scores. Knauf 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• An increase in all-cause mortality in adults with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis in the UK, Korea, Indonesia and Europe was no longer significant after adjusting for confounding factors. Yang 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• Median survival for patients with chronic respiratory failure receiving nasal high-flow oxygen therapy at home in France was 7.5 months, at a cost of €520; tracheal oxygen was associated with longer survival and lower costs. Dolidon 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• Mortality among people admitted to ICU with severe influenza in Italy 2017-18 was 24.1%; 27.6% required intubation, 10.3%  received extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. Bassetti 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• In women with apparent stage I epithelial ovarian cancer in Japan, clear cell histology has the highest risk of intraoperative rupture (57%), doubling the risk of mortality; postoperative chemotherapy does not improve survival after rupture.  Matsuo 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• Local consolidation therapy guided by positron emission tomography/computed tomography significantly increased overall survival in non-small-cell lung cancer in China compared with no consolidation. Song 2020 Go to paper on PubMed
• Five-year survival was 42% in patients with systemic juvenile arthritis who developed new parenchymal lung disease including pulmonary alveolar proteinosis. Saper 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• A rapid Cochrane review concluded that quarantine of people exposed to serious coronavirus infection (SARS, MERS, COVID-19) may reduce deaths by 31 to 63% and cost savings may be greater with earlier quarantine, but evidence is very weak. Nussbaumer-Streit 2020 Go to paper on PubMed 
• A single infusion of mesenchymal stromal cells did not reduce mortality compared with placebo in adults with acute respiratory distress syndrome being ventilated in the USA, but was well tolerated. Matthay 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• In US adults without CVD at baseline, subclinical myocardial injury was associated with a 33% increase in risk of CVD mortality after 14 years and poor physical activity with a 67% increased risk compared with ideal activity. German 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• In-hospital mortality was 27.3% in patients admitted with influenza B infection in China in 2017-2018; more severe pneumonia, high bilirubin and low platelets were associated with increased mortality. Liu 2019 Go to paper on PubMed
• A 1-standard deviation increase in SF-36 PCS scores was independently predictive of lower all-cause mortality (HR 0.65, 95%CI 0.52 to 0.81) in adults in Sweden with end-stage renal disease; MCS scores were not associated with mortality. Pei 2019 Go to paper on PubMed