Estimating colorectal cancer treatment costs: a pragmatic approach exemplified by health insurance data from Germany.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The cost of colorectal cancer (CRC) treatment is a crucial parameter to inform cost-effectiveness analyses on CRC screening but it is not readily available and therefore often lacking. We aimed to elaborate and exemplify a pragmatic approach to estimate CRC treatment cost based on health insurance data from Germany.

Methods

We included two groups of persons who were continuously health-insured between 2005-2010: A) Cases: Persons with a hospital discharge diagnosis of CRC (ICD C18-C20) between 2007-2010 and no such a diagnosis between 2005-2006 (to focus on incident CRC cases); B) Controls: Persons without a diagnosis of CRC during the observation period, matched to CRC cases by age and sex (matching factor: 1∶5). We considered in-patient, out-patient and drug cos

SUBMITTER: Haug U 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3929363 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature