Professional oral health care for preventing nursing home-acquired pneumonia: A cost-effectiveness and value of information analysis.

Abstract

Professional oral health care (POHC) prevents nursing home-acquired pneumonia (NHAP) and its related mortality. We assessed the cost-effectiveness of POHC versus no POHC (nPOHC) and the monetary value of eliminating uncertainty by future research. A German public-private payer perspective was adopted. A Markov model was used, following long-term care residents from admission to death. Cost-effectiveness was estimated as Euro/disability-adjusted life year (DALY) using Monte Carlo microsimulations. Value-of-information analyses were performed. The willingness-to-pay threshold/DALY was assumed to be 66% (range 50%-100%) of per-capita gross domestic product (GDP). nPOHC was less costly (€3,024) but also less effective (0.89 DALYs) than POHC (€10,249, 0.55 DALYs). For most presumed payers, POHC was cost-effective. The cost-effectiveness of POHC was higher in smokers, underweight or pulmonary disease patients. Eliminating uncertainty about the NHAP costs, NHAP incidence/mortality, and POHC effectiveness would result in an expected net value of 47million €/year (and even higher values at lower GDP thresholds), and is likely to decrease with time. Within the chosen setting and on the basis of current evidence, POHC was cost-effective. Given the detected uncertainty, further research seems warranted.