THE EPISODE-FREE DAY AS A COMPOSITE MEASURE OF EFFECTIVENESS - AN ILLUSTRATIVE ECONOMIC-EVALUATION OF FORMOTEROL VERSUS SALBUTAMOL IN ASTHMA THERAPY

Citation
Mj. Sculpher et Mj. Buxton, THE EPISODE-FREE DAY AS A COMPOSITE MEASURE OF EFFECTIVENESS - AN ILLUSTRATIVE ECONOMIC-EVALUATION OF FORMOTEROL VERSUS SALBUTAMOL IN ASTHMA THERAPY, PharmacoEconomics, 4(5), 1993, pp. 345-352
Citations number
NO
Categorie Soggetti
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Journal title
ISSN journal
11707690
Volume
4
Issue
5
Year of publication
1993
Pages
345 - 352
Database
ISI
SICI code
1170-7690(1993)4:5<345:TEDAAC>2.0.ZU;2-#
Abstract
The construction of a composite effectiveness measure was explored usi ng clinical data collected routinely in trials of drug therapies for a sthma. The measure is the episode-free day (EFD), where an 'episode' i s either an asthma attack, the need for rescue medication, sleep distu rbance caused by asthma, or an adverse event. The EFD measure was used in a retrospective cost-effectiveness analysis of a previous Phase II I controlled clinical trial of formoterol versus salbutamol, in which 145 patients with bronchial asthma were randomised to receive maintena nce therapy with either inhaled formoterol or inhaled salbutamol over a 12-week period. Average and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios we re assessed for the 2 drugs in terms of the total expected cost of dru g plus rescue therapy, and EFD rates. The analysis suggests that, with relatively little addition to clinical data collection, economically and clinically meaningful composite measures can be constructed to ass ist in making cost-effectiveness comparisons between alternative asthm a therapies.