Disregarding these method ological obstacles could implicitly lead to discrimination against the elderly in terms of health promotion and disease prevention and , hence , an age-based rationing of public health care
Background In the light of demographic developments health promotion interventions for older people are gaining importance .
In addition to method ological challenges arising from the economic evaluation of health promotion interventions in general , there are specific method ological problems for the particular target group of older people .
There are especially four main method ological challenges that are discussed in the literature .
They concern measurement and valuation of informal caregiving , accounting for productivity costs , effects of unrelated cost in added life years and the inclusion of ‘ beyond-health ’ benefits .
This paper focuses on the question whether and to what extent specific method ological requirements are actually met in applied health economic evaluations .
Cost-effectiveness of a multidisciplinary fall prevention program in community-dwelling elderly people: a randomized controlled trial (ISRCTN 64716113).
OBJECTIVES Multidisciplinary and multifactorial interventions seem to be effective in preventing falls . We aim ed to assess the cost-effectiveness of a multidisciplinary fall prevention program compared with usual Dutch healthcare in community-dwelling people 65 years of age or older who experienced a fall . METHODS Cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analysis were performed from a societal perspective . Falls and healthcare utilization were continuously measured for 12 months . Daily functioning and quality of life were measured at baseline , after 4 and 12 months . Bootstrap analyses were performed to estimate uncertainty of the findings and sensitivity analysis to assess the generalizability of assumptions made . RESULTS One hundred sixty-six participants were r and omly allocated to the experimental group and 167 to the control group .  The overall response rate was 74 percent . Healthcare and patient and family costs of both groups were comparable . Our analyses showed no effect of the intervention program on falls , daily functioning , or quality of life measures . CONCLUSIONS The multidisciplinary intervention program to prevent falls was not cost-effective compared with usual care in the Netherl and s. Notwithst and ing our findings , however , falls still have an important impact on society and individuals in terms of costs and effects . Economic evaluations study ing promising interventions to prevent falls , therefore , remain necessary
Disregarding these method ological obstacles could implicitly lead to discrimination against the elderly in terms of health promotion and disease prevention and , hence , an age-based rationing of public health care
Background In the light of demographic developments health promotion interventions for older people are gaining importance .
In addition to method ological challenges arising from the economic evaluation of health promotion interventions in general , there are specific method ological problems for the particular target group of older people .
There are especially four main method ological challenges that are discussed in the literature .
They concern measurement and valuation of informal caregiving , accounting for productivity costs , effects of unrelated cost in added life years and the inclusion of ‘ beyond-health ’ benefits .
This paper focuses on the question whether and to what extent specific method ological requirements are actually met in applied health economic evaluations .