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Ulf Gerdtham. Photo.

Ulf Gerdtham

Professor

Ulf Gerdtham. Photo.

Cost-Effectiveness and Heterogeneity: Using Finite Mixtures of Disease Activity Models to Identify and Analyze Phenotypes

Author

  • Sixten Borg
  • Ulf Gerdtham
  • Tobias Rydén
  • Pia Munkholm
  • Selwyn Odes
  • Bjørn Moum
  • Reinhold Stockbrügger
  • Stefan Lindgren

Summary, in English

Heterogeneity in patient populations is an important issue in health economic evaluations, as the cost-effectiveness of an intervention can vary between patient subgroups, and an intervention which is not cost-effective in the overall population may be cost-effective in particular subgroups. Identifying such subgroups is of interest in the allocation of healthcare resources. Our aim was to develop a method for cost-effectiveness analysis in heterogeneous chronic diseases, by identifying subgroups (phenotypes) directly relevant to the cost-effectiveness of an intervention, and by enabling cost-effectiveness analyses of the intervention in each of these phenotypes. We identified phenotypes based on healthcare resource utilization, using finite mixtures of underlying disease activity models: first, an explicit disease activity model, and secondly, a model of aggregated disease activity. They differed with regards to time-dependence, level of detail, and what interventions they could evaluate. We used them for cost-effectiveness analyses of two hypothetical interventions. Allowing for different phenotypes improved model fit, and was a key step towards dealing with heterogeneity. The cost-effectiveness of the interventions varied substantially between phenotypes. Using underlying disease activity models for identifying phenotypes as well as cost-effectiveness analysis appears both feasible and useful in that they guide the decision to introduce an intervention.

Department/s

  • Health Economics
  • Department of Economics
  • Chronic Inflammatory and Degenerative Diseases Research Unit
  • Gastroenterology
  • EpiHealth: Epidemiology for Health

Publishing year

2015

Language

English

Publication/Series

Working Paper / Department of Economics, School of Economics and Management, Lund University

Issue

5

Document type

Working paper

Publisher

Department of Economics, Lund University

Topic

  • Health Care Service and Management, Health Policy and Services and Health Economy
  • Clinical Medicine

Keywords

  • Cost-effectiveness
  • Disease heterogeneity
  • Phenotypes
  • Latent classes
  • Disease activity model
  • Crohn's disease

Status

Published

Project

  • Disease activity models of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

Research group

  • Health Economics
  • Chronic Inflammatory and Degenerative Diseases Research Unit
  • Gastroenterology