Background: Evidence about how people value health gains for different age groups is controversial and incomplete, despite the significance of this issue for priority setting in health policy. Objective: The aim of this study was to collect and analyse nationally representative data in the US...

Background: The Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act (FDAMA) of 1997, Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act (BPCA) of 2002 and Pediatric Research Equity Act of 2007 provide an extended period of 6 months of marketing exclusivity (i.e. patent extension) to prescription drug...

Background: Previous research to develop a new generic paediatric health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) measure generated 11 dimensions of HR-QOL, covering physical, emotional and social functioning. These dimensions and their response scales were developed from interviews with children. Some...

Background:Background: Biennial faecal occult blood testing (FOBT) for individuals aged 60-69 years is the primary screening tool for colorectal cancer (CRC) in the UK NHS, despite a large number of patients undergoing an unnecessary optical colonoscopy (OC) and evidence from modelling studies...

Background: Assessments of vaccination programmes should account for several important factors, including efficacy, safety and costs of preventing and treating the disease. Because patients with invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) are managed primarily in an inpatient setting, hospital costs...

Introduction: Streptococcus pneumoniae (Sp.) is a leading cause of paediatric bacterial meningitis, pneumonia and acute otitis media, as is non-typable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) for acute otitis media. In 2008, a 7-valent conjugated pneumococcal vaccine (PCV7) was included in the New Zealand...

Early childhood intervention programmes have emerged in recent years with the aim of fostering the cognitive and social-emotional functioning and physical health of preschool children and enhancing their emerging competencies. This article presents a structured critical appraisal of economic...

Aim: To assess the relative cost effectiveness of four strategies (academic detailing, computerised reminder systems, target payments and interactive continuing medical education) to increase the provision of screening and brief interventions by Australian GPs with the ultimate goal of...

Bone densitometry is currently widely recommended for, and considered central to, identifying post-menopausal women and older men at high risk of fracture and establishing an indication for pharmacological fracture-prevention therapy. The purpose of this article is to comprehensively review...

We reviewed several cost-effectiveness analyses that modelled the costs and yield of newborn screening for sickle cell disease (SCD) in the US and the UK and discuss the ways in which newborn screening policies in each country evolved with regard to the results of the analyses. Each of the...