Economic Burden Of Hypertension Research Articles

Epidemiologic Changes and Economic Burden of Hypertension in Latin America: Evidence from Mexico

Costs of health services for hypertension and the financial consequences of epidemiologic changes in this disease are important concerns for health systems in Latin America. We conducted longitudinal analyses of the economic impact of the epidemiologic changes on health care services for hypertension in the Mexican health care system. The cost evaluation method used was based on costing technique by production function and consensus techniques. To estimate the epidemiologic changes and financial consequences for the period 2005 to 2007, three probabilistic models were constructed according to the Box-Jenkins technique. If changes are not implemented in prevention programs to reduce the effects of current risk factors, there will be increases in the number of patients with hypertension as well as in the financial burden to treat the disease. The amount allocated for hypertension in 2007, which will be 6% to 8% of the total health budget, is US$ 2,486,145,132. Of these, US$ 1,178,725,132 will be direct costs and US$ 1,307,420,000 will be indirect costs. Regarding epidemiologic changes for 2005 v 2007 (P < .05), an increase is expected, although results show a greater increase in insured populations. If the risk factors and different health programs remain as they currently are, the economic impact of expected epidemiologic changes on the social security system will be particularly strong. Another relevant financial factor is the appearance of internal competition in the allocation of financial resources among the main providers of health services for hypertension; this factor becomes even more complicated within each provider.

PCV2 An Analysis of the Economics of Hypertension

Given the economic burden of hypertension and its consequences (i.e., $259 billion in the United States per year), it is important to identify effective treatment strategies that use limited medical resources. Thus, economic studies are continually being conducted in order to provide clinicians with information on cost-effective management of hypertension. The purpose of this analysis was to evaluate economic studies in hypertension management and to recommend suggestions for future research. METHODS: An extensive review of the literature pertaining to the economics of hypertension was completed. Each study was then evaluated, and the methodologies and results were compared. The studies were also compared to the JNC-VI guidelines. RESULTS: First, few long-term economic evaluation are available to aid in determining the most efficient and effective strategies for managing hypertension in individual patients or patient groups. Second, the economic analyses of hypertension are difficult to compare since their methodologies varied widely. In general, they focused on initial monotherapy, and many of the assumptions regarding treatment were questionable. The studies did not include all the variables the JNC-VI guidelines refer to when making therapy decisions. CONCLUSIONS: Additional economic evaluations that use a consistent methodology and that include all variables shown to affect cost-effectiveness ratios, including the ones considered in developing the JNC-VI guidelines, are necessary. In addition, economic evaluations of combination products and changes in initial therapy are necessary since these affect the total cost of hypertension treatment. Other considerations for future evaluations (e.g., compliance issue, quality of life issues) are reviewed.

Hypertension: APOR studies identify patients, outcomes and costs

At the Second Annual International Meeting of the Association for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research [APOR; Philadelphia, US; April 1997 ] a session was held on the identification of patients with hypertension and the costs and outcomes associated with antihypertensive therapies. The results of the studies presented below suggest the economic burden of hypertension is substantial, that there is room for improvement in antihypertensive prescribing, and that appropriate use of such drugs can lead to better health outcomes and considerable cost savings.