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Comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation: A cost assessment based on a randomized clinical trial
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 September 2006
Abstract
Objectives: The costs of comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation are established and compared to the corresponding costs of usual care. The effect on health-related quality of life is analyzed.
Methods: An unprecedented and very detailed cost assessment was carried out, as no guidelines existed for the situation at hand. Due to challenging circumstances, the cost assessment turned out to be ex-post and top-down.
Results: Cost per treatment sequence is estimated to be approximately €976, whereas the incremental cost (compared with usual care) is approximately €682. The cost estimate is uncertain and may be as high as €1.877.
Conclusions: Comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation is more costly than usual care, and the higher costs are not outweighed by a quality of life gain. Comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation is, therefore, not cost-effective.
- Type
- GENERAL ESSAYS
- Information
- International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care , Volume 22 , Issue 4 , October 2006 , pp. 478 - 483
- Copyright
- © 2006 Cambridge University Press
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