Earlier study of effect on healthcare costs of preventing fatal diseases yielded similar results

BMJ 1998;316:1985 ( 27 June )

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Earlier study of effect on healthcare costs of preventing fatal diseases yielded similar results

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EDITOR $---$ I was surprised that Bonneux et al¹ did not refer to my work of almost a decade earlier² in their paper showingthat preventing fatal diseases increases healthcare costs.²To have done so would have strengthened their findings.

I posed the same question as Bonneux et al and used similar lifetable analyses. The most important differences between thetwo studies arise from the costings, the population referred to,and the time period. I could not find readily available monetarycosts. I therefore used condition specific bed use abstractedfrom the hospital inpatient enquiry for 1980 and 1981 as a proxymeasure for acute hospital costs.³ The analyses were basedon age specific and cause specific mortality in England and Walesin 1980-1.

Qualitatively Bonneux et al's findings agree with mine. For instance, I found that eliminating cancers would increase populationacute care costs by 3% and eliminating ischaemic heart disease. . . [Full text of this article]

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Preventing fatal diseases increases healthcare costs: cause elimination life table approach: Luc Bonneux, Jan J Barendregt, Wilma J Nusselder, and Paul J Van der Maas
BMJ 1998 316: 26-29. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]