With increasing chronic disease and disability burden as a result of the aging of populations worldwide, cost estimates of disease and disability are important in determining: 1. the most cost-effective methods in delivering healthcare in order to maximise resources; and 2. health policies and...

As physicians become more aware of the need to treat anaemia in their patients with cancer, they have to consider 2 treatment options: red blood cell transfusion or recombinant human erythropoietin [epoetin alfa; epoetin beta]. Healthcare systems are under increasing pressure to lower costs while...

Contemporary asthma management guidelines list inhaled corticosteroids as the preferred controller medication for patients with persistent asthma. Despite the availability of explicit guidelines, there is evidence that these agents are underused and that guidelines are not always adhered to....

Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death in women with gynaecological cancers. The most common type of ovarian cancer is epithelial ovarian cancer. Referred to as the `silent' killer, this disease is difficult to detect because of the lack of specific symptoms. The majority of women who have...

Idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common chronic progressive neurodegenerative disorder associated with the progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. The natural course of the disease may lead to severe disability despite a variety of pharmacological and surgical...

Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a progressive disease with an insidious onset. It is thought to affect up to 10% of European and North American populations with a significantly higher incidence in non-White than in White populations. Complications of the disease are associated with considerable...

The effectiveness of drug treatment in clinical practice is considerably lower than the efficacy shown in controlled studies. The lower effectiveness in practice presumably leads to lower cost effectiveness of drug treatment in real-life situations compared with that demonstrated by studies...

The progressive disability of Parkinson's disease results in substantial burdens for patients, their families and society in terms of increased health resource use, poorer quality of life, caregiver burden, disrupted family relationships, decreases in social and leisure activities, deteriorating...