Cost-effectiveness of a telephone-delivered education programme to prevent early childhood caries in a disadvantaged area: a cohort study.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Early childhood caries is a highly destructive dental disease which is compounded by the need for young children to be treated under general anaesthesia. In Australia, there are long waiting periods for treatment at public hospitals. In this paper, we examined the costs and patient outcomes of a prevention programme for early childhood caries to assess its value for government services.

Design

Cost-effectiveness analysis using a Markov model.

Setting

Public dental patients in a low socioeconomic, socially disadvantaged area in the State of Queensland, Australia.

Participants

Children aged 6 months to 6 years received either a telephone prevention programme or usual care.

Primary and secondary outcome measures

A mathematical model was used to a

SUBMITTER: Pukallus M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3657662 | biostudies-literature | 2013 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature