Citation

Ryen L, Svensson M. Eur. J. Public Health 2015; 26(3): 407-411.

Affiliation

Department of Economics, Örebro University, Sweden Health Metrics, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/eurpub/ckv197

PMID

26498954

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Fall-related injuries among the elderly, specifically hip fractures, cause significant morbidity and mortality as well as imposing a substantial financial cost on the health care system. Impact-absorbing flooring has been advocated as an effective method for preventing hip fractures resulting from falls. This study identifies the cost-effectiveness of impact-absorbing flooring compared to standard flooring in residential care facilities for the elderly in a Swedish setting.

METHOD: An incremental cost-effectiveness analysis was performed comparing impact-absorbing flooring to standard flooring using a Markov decision model. A societal perspective was adopted and incremental costs were compared to incremental gains in quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). Data on costs, probability transitions and health-related quality of life measures were retrieved from the published literature and from Swedish register data. Probabilistic sensitivity analysis was performed through a Monte Carlo simulation.

RESULTS: The base-case analysis indicates that the impact-absorbing flooring reduces costs and increases QALYs. When allowing for uncertainty we find that 60% of the simulations indicate that impact-absorbing flooring is cost-saving compared to standard flooring and an additional 20% that it has a cost per QALY below a commonly used threshold value CONCLUSIONS: : Using a modelling approach, we find that impact-absorbing flooring is a dominant strategy at the societal level considering that it can save resources and improve health in a vulnerable population.

Language: en