Erectile dysfunction (ED) affects many men and, as the elderly population grows, the incidence of ED and demand for treatment will increase. Many organic and/or psychogenic factors cause or worsen ED. For healthcare providers and insurers, the treatment of ED involves direct medical costs (e.g....

Objective: To estimate the annual direct cost of managing erectile dysfunction (ED) to the UK National Health Service (NHS) and to examine the impact of the introduction of sildenafil in 1998 and Schedule 11 restrictions in 1999. Design: A prevalence-based cost-of-illness approach was used. The...

Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness at containing service costs of the UK's Department of Health (DoH) guidance on prescribing for impotence implemented after the introduction of sildenafil and taking effect from 1 July 1999. Design: A pragmatic economic analysis of the impact of the DoH...

Objective: To present the pattern of self-report and diagnosis of erectile dysfunction in the US over the time period 1990 through 1998 and examine whether the introduction of sildenafil in March 1998 influenced these findings. Study design and methods: Retrospective database analysis. Data from...

Objective: This paper examined the economic cost of male erectile dysfunction (ED) for a hypothetical managed-care (MC) model. Design and Setting: A prevalence-based cost-of-illness approach was used to estimate the direct medical cost for ED treatment. A treatment plan algorithm was developed...

Objective: To assess the efficacy of a World Wide Web-enabled asthma self-management intervention on quality-of-life indicators among self-selected participants with asthma. Design: A quasi-experimental design was used in which quality-of-life outcome indicators were derived from the Mini Asthma...

Objective: The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a newly implemented hospital-based diabetes mellitus disease management program. A secondary aim was to determine if relationships existed among variables. Design and setting: Effectiveness was evaluated in terms of...

Background: Use of unmodified interferon alpha-2a in chronic hepatitis C is associated with impaired health-related quality of life during therapy. Treatment with peginterferon alpha-2a (40kD) provides an improved sustained response over unmodified interferon alpha-2a. Objectives: To compare...

Objectives: To evaluate the burden of illness in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), in terms of resource utilisation (direct and indirect) and health-related quality of life (HR-QOL), in individuals with IBS who meet Rome I and Rome II criteria. Methods: A cross-sectional study, carried out by...

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...