Browsing by Subject "cost"
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(2018)Several unhealthy lifestyle factors are associated with increased sickness absence (SA) and their cost. Diet and physical activity are lifestyle factors that can be altered and thus, they may include potential to effect on employer’s cost of SA. This study aimed to estimate the associations of changes in diet and leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) with employer’s direct cost of subsequent short-term (< 10 working days) SA spells. This study is a part of the Helsinki Health Study which is a longitudinal cohort of 40–60-year-old employees of the City of Helsinki in Finland (n = 8960, response rate 67 %). The participants received a phase 1 questionnaire during 2000–02 and a phase 2 questionnaire in 2007. Data from the phase 1 to the phase 2 were used to examine changes in diet and LTPA. Dietary habits were inquired by using a short food frequency questionnaire. Consumption of fruits (F) and vegetables (V) was used as an indicator of healthiness of participants’ diet. Participants’ F&V consumption was classified into three categories both in the phase 1 and 2: those who consumed neither F nor V daily, those who consumed either F or V daily and those who consumed both of them daily. In the question about LTPA, the participants estimated the intensity and the amount of their weekly leisure-time exercise, and based on these, the average weekly MET-hours were calculated. Participants were classified into three categories both in the phase 1 and 2: inactive (< 14 MET-hours/week), moderately active (≥ 14 MET-hours including LTPA with moderate intensity) and active (≥ 14 MET-hours/week including LTPA with vigorous intensity). Data of short-term SA and salaries were received from the employers’ registers between 2008 and 2012. A two-part model was used to analyze the associations between changes in diet and LTPA with the cost of SA. Employees who improved their F&V consumption from non-daily to daily and persevered physically active got 620 € (95 % CI 1194 €, -47 €) lower cost for the employer than those remaining non-daily F&V consumers and physically inactive through the 5-year follow-up, which means 21 % decrease in cost attributable to F&V consumption and LTPA. When examining changes in diet solely, improving or maintaining a greater F&V consumption tended to get lower cost, whereas the highest cost were among those who decreased their F&V consumption from daily to non-daily. No statistically significant results were found, however. Instead, those who persevered physically active (-546 €, 95 % CI -955 €, -137 €) or improved from moderately active to active (-542 €, 95 % CI -1005 €, -78 €) got 19% less cost for the employer than those remaining inactive through the follow-up. Employees who were inactive either in the phase 1 or 2 or continuously inactive got the highest cost for the employer. Improving employees’ diet and LTPA may reduce employer’s direct cost of short-term SA. Though diet had individually no significant associations with cost, improvements in diet may contribute the beneficial associations of LTPA with employer’s cost. To estimate the total cost savings that improvements in diet and LTPA may produce for the employer, all other direct and indirect cost attributable diet and LTPA, such as presenteeism and medical care cost, should also be evaluated.
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(2017)The economic burden of adverse events (AEs) is substantial and in direct relation to current increasing drug utilisation. According to previous research, the annual cost of AEs in the U.S. may be as high as 22.9 billion euros. In Europe AEs are considered to contribute to 3.6 percent of hospital admissions, have an impact on 10 percent of inpatients during their hospital admission and are responsible for less than 0.5 percent of inpatient deaths. AEs thus clearly constitute a major clinical issue. Fluoroquinolones have been in clinical use since the 1980s and are globally among the most consumed antimicrobials. Fluoroquinolones are generally well tolerated antimicrobials. The most common AEs are mild and reversible, such as diarrhea, nausea and headaches. Nevertheless, fluoroquinolones are also associated with more serious AEs, including Clostridium difficile associated diarrhea (CDAD), rate-corrected electrocardiographic prolonged QT interval, tendinitis and tendon rupture, dysglycemia, hepatic toxicity, phototoxicity, acute renal failure and serious AEs involving the central nervous system, such as seizures. Health service use and costs specifically associated with fluoroquinolone-related AEs have not been evaluated previously. The theory section of this Marter's thesis considers adverse events and fluoroquinolones. The main principles of conducting a systematic review are also discussed. The empirical section is a systematic review. The aim of this study is to identify health care use and costs associated with ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, moxifloxacin, norfloxacin and ofloxacin -related AEs. A literature search covering Medline, SCOPUS, Cinahl, Web of Science and Cochrane Library was performed in April 2017. Two independent reviewers systematically extracted the data and assessed the quality of the included studies. All costs were converted to 2016 euro in order to improve comparability. Of the 5,687 references found in the literature search, 19 observational studies, of which 5 were case-controlled, fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Hospitalization was an AE-related health care use outcome in 17 studies. Length of stay associated with AEs varied between <5 - 45 days. The estimated cost of an AE episode ranged between 140 and 18,252 €. CDAD was associated with the longest stays in hospital. However, a mere 10 studies reported AE-related length of stays and only 5 evaluated costs associated with AEs. Although rare, in particular serious fluoroquinolone-related AEs can have substantial economic implications, in addition to imposing potentially devastating health complications for patients. Further measures are required to prevent and reduce health service use and costs associated with fluoroquinolone-related AEs. Equally, better-quality reporting and additional published data on health service use and costs associated with AEs are essential. The strengths of this study are a comprehensive and systematic literature search and transparency of methodologies and reporting. The main weakness is the generalizability of the results.
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(2021)The Finnish medicine reimbursement system is complex and several different conditions required by the Health Insurance Act (1224/2004) and the Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela) must be met in order to receive medicine reimbursement. The understanding of medicine reimbursement criteria from the perspective of medicine users has not been studied in Finland before, and little research has been done on the subject internationally. Medicine user-oriented research on the medicine reimbursement system, both in Finland and internationally, has largely focused on the financial opportunities of medicine users to purchase medicines and their opinions on the fairness of medicine reimbursements. The aim of this study was to obtain information on the understanding of medicine reimbursement criteria and the background factors affecting it, the implementation of price, generic substitution and medicine reimbursement counselling in pharmacies, seeking advice on medicine reimbursement, and the financial difficulties of buying prescription medicines. The material used in this study was from the population survey (n=1650), which examined the activation of price competition for pharmaceutical products and customers' expectations of pharmacy operations. The understanding of medicine reimbursement criteria, the price counselling provided in a pharmacy, the effect of financial challenges on the non-buying of medicines and the use of sources of advice related to the medicine reimbursement were described as frequency distributions. The effect of background factors on the understanding of medicine reimbursement criteria was compared using the chi-square test and logistic regression analysis. About a third (31%) of respondents told that they do not understand the basis on which medicine reimbursement is usually received for prescription medicines, and 13% had unclear why they had not been reimbursed for their prescription medicine in the past year. Especially younger age, low income, low medication use, depression and other mental health problems, lack of long-term illness, and insufficient medicine reimbursement counselling in a pharmacy were found to be associated with poorer understanding of medicine reimbursement. 72% of the participants in the study felt that they usually receive sufficient information about the prices of medicines and 61% about the reimbursement of medicines when buying prescription medicines from a pharmacy. Less than half (47%) of respondents felt that they have usually received sufficient information about how the amount of reimbursement for medicines is determined. Slightly over 70% of respondents said that they are usually told about the cheapest medicine available when buying a prescription medicine and/or are suggested to switch to a cheaper one. About 60% were usually told about the difference between the two interchangeable medicines. 88% of respondents would seek information about medicine reimbursement primarily from a pharmacy or pharmacy´s online services. About 3% of all respondents in the study had not bought a medicine prescribed by a doctor for financial reasons in the last six months. Based on the study, about a third of medicine users have remained unclear regarding medicine reimbursements, and not everyone feels that they have received sufficient counselling and information about medicine prices and medicine reimbursements when buying prescription medicines from a pharmacy. Counselling from a pharmacy was found to be related to understanding of medicine reimbursement criteria. Advise on the pricing, medicine reimbursement and generic substitution should continue to be actively provided to medicine users, so that the counselling meets the requirements of the law and the knowledge of the reimbursement system of medicine users can be improved. Based on the results of this study, counselling should be targeted in particular at younger, low-income and from mental health problems suffering medicine users, as well as those who are less familiar with reimbursement issues, for example due to low morbidity or medicine use.
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(2015)End stage renal disease (ESRD) burdens both society and patient trough lower quality of life and the cost of treatment, as well as through lost productivity. In 2012, the incidence of ESRD was 81 patients per one million inhabitants in Finland. Annual number of kidney transplantations range from 150 to 210. The costs of specialized medical care, adherence to medication and health related quality of life (HRQoL) of kidney transplant patients were analyzed in this study. The aim of the study was to provide research to support the improvement of the kidney transplant patients' health care process and future research on the cost-effectiveness of kidney transplantation. In addition, the aim was to produce information to support health care decision making and resource allocation. The study population included 320 patients who had received a kidney transplant in HYKS. Of the included patients, 198 answered the questionnaire and 122 formed a control population of which only cost data was available. The cost data was collected from the HUS Ecomed-database. Medication adherence was measured with the BAASIS- and VAS-instruments and the HRQoL with the generic 15D-instrument. Forty-three per cent of the patients were non-adherent. There was no statistical difference in the adherence of patients with different dialysis modalities. The correct timing of taking the immunosuppressive medication proved to be its biggest challenge. The average quality of life for kidney transplant patients was measured at 0.87. There were no statistically significant differences in the 15D scores between adherent and non-adherent patients or different dialysis modalities. Instead, there were statistically significant differences between dialysis modalities in some of the 15 dimensions. The 15D score was on average lower among patients with a higher MRCI-score or a longer dialysis period prior to transplantation. The average cost for the specialized medical care of the kidney transplant patients was 34 331 euros on the year prior to the transplant, 52 834 euros one year after the transplant and 8 537 and 7 791 euros on the second and third year after the transplant, respectively. Average costs for all three years after the transplantation combined were 68 932 euros. Based on the results of this study, non-adherence to medication proved to be a considerable issue for kidney transplant patients. The HRQoL after a kidney transplantation was moderately high, although lower than in the age standardized general population. Adherence to medication, HRQoL or the dialysis modality were not associated with cost of the specialized medical care after the kidney transplantation and there was no single factor associated with these post transplant costs. The strength of the study is a comprehensive longitudinal analysis of special care costs and the factors associated with them. On the other hand, health related quality of life is only measured once, which is a limitation. The cost analysis would have been more comprehensive if all the health care cost and other direct costs such as travel and time cost as well as indirect costs such the loss of productivity had been included.
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(2016)In the United States pharmacists have prescribed medicines and managed patient's drug therapy since the 1970s, and in the United Kingdom pharmacists have been authorization to prescribe medications since 2003. The discussion about the right of Masters of Science in Pharmacy will be renewed prescriptions during the last decade in Finland but few Finnish studies have been published from the subject. In the document Medicines Policy 2020 published by Ministry of Social Affairs and Health states that by prescribing should be used cost-effective modes of operation. The knowledge about pharmacist prescribing benefits and costs, and also prescribing practice in Finland, is needed to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of pharmacists' authorization to prescribe and to support the decision-making concerning pharmacist prescribing. The aim of this master's thesis is to gather all existing knowledge about the economic and other effects of pharmacist prescribing using a systematic literature review method. The aim of theoretical part of this master's thesis is to explain the Finnish prescribing, the participation of pharmacists in drug therapy management in Finland and internationally pharmacist prescribing. The empirical part of this master's thesis is also to assess the quality of the studies of pharmacist prescribing benefits and costs using quality assessment checklists. In addition, this thesis describes the principles of the cost and benefit analyses, economic evaluations and systematic literature reviews. As a result of the literature search were found 1825 references. Based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 17 studies were selected to include in the systematic review. Of these studies three were economic assessments, 8 randomized controlled trials and 6 observational studies. The quality of these studies was assessed using four quality assessment checklists. On the basis of a systematic literature review pharmacist prescribing has been studied in the treatment of type 2 diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, anticoagulation, chronic pain, emergency contraception and minor ailments and renewal of long-term medicines. Pharmacists reduced blood pressure by providing follow-up care with prescribing compared with the usual care, but not compared with the case management, which does not include prescribing. In addition, the follow-up care was to improve the treatment results of type II diabetes. The results obtained in the care of dyslipidemia were partly unclear. In the clinic follow-up care with prescribing could be reduced LDL-cholesterol, but not the risk of cardiovascular disease compared with the control group. In the pharmacy follow-up care had no effect on the treatment of patients with LDL-cholesterol compared with the control group. In addition, pharmacist prescribing improved how well patients stayed within INR target range. Pharmacist medication review with pharmacist prescribing achieved in the care of chronic pain patients differed few from the results of pharmacist medication review with feedback for a general practitioner. Pharmacist prescribing could reduce errors in inpatient medication compared with usual care. Much uncertainty is connected to the results of the study. The limited amount of studies, heterogeneity of the studies and methodological quality make the evaluation of real effects more difficult. The included studies of pharmacist prescribing were so heterogeneous. In addition treated disease, assessed benefits and scope of working environment were varied in included studies. Pharmacist prescribing was often studied as part of other care or pharmaceutical service, such as chronic disease management or medication review. The quality assessment of the included studies revealed several sources of bias. The available research information is the insufficient reliable evaluation of economic and other effects of pharmacist prescribing and the need for the further research is big.
Now showing items 1-5 of 5