Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major cause of mortality and morbidity. Relatively few pharmacoeconomic studies have been conducted on this disease. This article reviews available information about the utilisation of healthcare resources and cost of care, and the cost or cost...

The past few years have seen rapid changes in the methods of decision-analytic modelling of healthcare programmes for the purposes of economic evaluation. This paper focuses on four developments in modelling that have emerged over the past few years or have become more widely used. First, no one...

About one-quarter of men aged 50 years and older experience voiding problems due to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Until about 10 years ago, surgery (particularly transurethral resection of the prostate) was the only effective treatment for symptomatic BPH. Over the last decade, several new...

Objective: To investigate the effect of changes in body mass index (BMI) on health state preferences (HSP). Design: Multiple regression analysis on pooled data from a clinical study, predicting final HSP as a function of changes in BMI and initial HSP, controlling for age and gender. Subgroup...

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a difficult to diagnose, fatal, progressive degenerative disease with an average survival time of 2 to 5 years. Percutaneous endoscopic gastrotomy (PEG) and bi-level intermittent positive pressure (BIPAP) ventilation may be the major interventions leading...

A literature search was conducted to review quality-of-life (QOL) measurement in patients with benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH). The different QOL instruments are discussed in relation to their correlation with symptom evaluation in studies of treatment options for BPH. Symptom evaluation of...

Objectives: To measure preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for a novel anaesthetic (dental gel) versus existing anaesthetic options for periodontal maintenance visits. Design: The study was conducted by developing and administering a survey, composed of a modified decision aid and a WTP...

Background: Although several studies have determined quality of life in patients with lung cancer, there is still little information about the use of generic questionnaires [e.g. the 36-item Short Form health survey (SF-36)] and utility questionnaires [e.g. the EuroQOL instrument (EQ-5D)] in...

Pharmacoeconomics is vitally important to drug manufacturers in terms of communicating to external decision-makers (payers, prescribers, patients) the value of their products, achieving regulatory and reimbursement approval and contributing to commercial success. Since development of new drugs...

The incidence, morbidity and mortality of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is rising throughout the world. The total economic cost of COPD in the US in 1993 was estimated to be over $US15.5 billion, with $US6.1 billion for hospitalisation, $US4.4 billion for physician and other fees,...