Why equal treatment is not always equitable: the impact of existing ethnic health inequalities in cost-effectiveness modeling.

ABSTRACT:

Background

A critical first step toward incorporating equity into cost-effectiveness analyses is to appropriately model interventions by population subgroups. In this paper we use a standardized treatment intervention to examine the impact of using ethnic-specific (Māori and non-Māori) data in cost-utility analyses for three cancers.

Methods

We estimate gains in health-adjusted life years (HALYs) for a simple intervention (20% reduction in excess cancer mortality) for lung, female breast, and colon cancers, using Markov modeling. Base models include ethnic-specific cancer incidence with other parameters either turned off or set to non-Māori levels for both groups. Subsequent models add ethnic-specific cancer survival, morbidity, and life expectancy. Costs include interventio

SUBMITTER: McLeod M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4047777 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature