Value in health : the journal of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research
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Economic evaluations of health interventions pose a particular challenge for reporting. There is also a need to consolidate and update existing guidelines and promote their use in a user friendly manner. The Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards (CHEERS) statement is an attempt to consolidate and update previous health economic evaluation guidelines efforts into one current, useful reporting guidance. ⋯ To facilitate dissemination and uptake, the CHEERS statement is being co-published across 10 health economics and medical journals. We encourage other journals and groups, to endorse CHEERS. The author team plans to review the checklist for an update in five years.
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The Treatment Satisfaction with Medicines Questionnaire (SATMED-Q) has shown appropriate psychometric properties exploring patients' satisfaction with treatment. Responsiveness (sensitivity to change) and known-group validity, however, still remained unknown. Thus, the goal of this study was to explore such psychometric properties for the SATMED-Q. ⋯ The SATMED-Q was sensitive to changes in patients' satisfaction with treatment. In addition, patients' different heath statuses are correlated with different levels of satisfaction with treatment.
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To quantify the cost differences and predictors of lost productive time (LPT) in persons with chronic migraine (CM) and episodic migraine (EM). ⋯ LPT is more costly and increases more rapidly for those with CM than for those with EM as age increases.
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Over the past 50 years, health care has been making a growing contribution to population health in many countries. Yet its benefits are still denied to many people worldwide. This article describes how many countries, both developed and developing, have pursued the quest to achieve universal health care. ⋯ Throughout, the United States has been an exception. An analysis of progress toward universal health care, combining a review of existing theories and new empirical analysis, identifies five factors as important: the strength of organized labor and left-wing parties, adequate economic resources, absence of societal divisions, weakness of institutions that might oppose it (such as organized medicine), and windows of opportunity. Having noted the substantial benefits accruing from universal health care, the article concludes with an analysis of how universal health care is under threat in some European countries and a warning about the risks posed by current radical austerity policies.
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Comparative Study
Responsiveness of the EQ-5D health-related quality-of-life instrument in assessing low back pain.
To compare the responsiveness of the EuroQol five-dimensional questionnaire (EQ-5D) generic quality-of-life instrument with that of specific instruments-the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) and the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI)-in assessing low back pain. ⋯ The EQ-5D index is less responsive than instruments specific to pain measurement, although it is capable of indicating clinically important changes. The lower responsiveness arises from EQ-5D's more limited gradation of severity and its multidimensionality.