Abstract
The economic evaluation of health care programs is undertaken to assess health care costs and benefits. Part of the goal of cost-effectiveness analysis is to maximize health benefits given the constraint of limited health care resources. The identification of costs is critical in a cost-effectiveness analysis of clinical interventions. The recent introduction of the cyclooxygenase (COX)-2-selective inhibitors, coxibs, for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, and acute pain gives rise to cost-effectiveness issues. These new agents provide similar efficacy with fewer gastrointestinal events compared with nonselective nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), but are more expensive on a per-dose basis. However, several modeled cost analyses have suggested that COX-2 inhibitors are cost effective in subsets of patients because they are associated with fewer downstream costs, particularly medical and surgical treatment of gastrointestinal adverse effects. Three cost-effectiveness models of interventions for rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis, including COX-2 inhibitors, are reviewed. Prospective clinical investigation of the potential costs and benefits of these new agents is necessary to further support these findings.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | S28-S37 |
Journal | Journal of pain and symptom management |
Volume | 24 |
Issue number | 1 SUPPL. 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jul 2002 |
Keywords
- Arthritis
- Cost-benefit analysis
- Cyclooxygenase inhibitors
- Decision trees
- Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents
- Pharmaceutical economics
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Nursing
- Clinical Neurology
- Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine