Ava John-Baptiste

The effect of English language proficiency on length of stay and in-hospital mortality

AbstractBACKGROUND: In ambulatory care settings, patients with limited English proficiency receive lower quality of care. Limited information is available describing outcomes for inpatients. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of English proficiency on length of stay (LOS) and in-hospital mortality. DESIGN: Retrospective analysis of administrative data at 3 tertiary care teaching hospitals (University Health Network) in Toronto, Canada. PARTICIPANTS: Consecutive inpatient admissions from April 1993 to December 1999 were analyzed for LOS differences first by looking at 23 medical and surgical conditions (59,547 records) and then by a meta-analysis of 220 case mix groups (189,119 records). We performed a similar analysis for in-hospital mortality. MEASUREMENTS: LOS and odds of in-hospital death for limited English-proficient (LEP) patients relative to English-proficient (EP) patients. RESULTS: LEP patients stayed in hospital longer for 7 of 23 conditions (unstable coronary syndromes and chest pain, coronary artery bypass grafting, stroke, craniotomy procedures, diabetes mellitus, major intestinal and rectal procedures, and elective hip replacement), with LOS differences ranging from approximately 0.7 to 4.3 days. A meta-analysis using all admission data demonstrated that LEP patients stayed 6% (approximately 0.5 days) longer overall than EP patients (95% confidence interval, 0.04 to 0.07). LEP patients were not at increased risk of in-hospital death (relative odds, 1.0; 95% confidence interval, 0.9 to 1.1). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with limited English proficiency have longer hospital stays for some medical and surgical conditions. Limited English proficiency does not affect in-hospital mortality. The effect of communication barriers on outcomes of care in the inpatient setting requires further exploration, particularly for selected conditions in which length of stay is significantly prolonged.

Sustained Responders Have Better Quality of Life and Productivity Compared With Treatment Failures Long After Antiviral Therapy for Hepatitis C

OBJECTIVES:We sought to compare the health status of patients with a sustained response to antiviral therapy for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection with that of treatment failures, using health-related quality of life and preference (utility) measures.METHODS:Sustained responders had undetectable HCV viral levels 6 months after antiviral therapy. After antiviral therapy, participants completed, by mail or interview, the hepatitis-specific Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form 36-Item Health Survey (SF-36), the Health Utilities Index Mark 2/3 (HUI2/3), and time trade-off (TTO) for current health. The respondents provided information on demographics, history of substance abuse, comorbidities, and health history. Detailed clinical information was obtained by chart review. The respondents also indicated whether they missed work, volunteer opportunities, or household activities during the previous 3 months because of hepatitis C infection or its treatment.RESULTS:A total of 235 patients (133 responders and 102 treatment failures) completed questionnaires at an average of 3.7 years after the end of treatment. Treatment failures had significantly lower scores on the eight SF-36 domains (P<0.01), lower scores on the hepatitis-specific domains (P<0.0001), and lower physical (42.5 vs. 49.2) and mental (40.5 vs. 46.1) component summary scores (P<0.01). HUI3 (0.57 vs. 0.70), HUI2 (0.74 vs. 0.80), SF-6D (0.65 vs. 0.71), and TTO (0.84 vs. 0.89) were lower for treatment failures (P<0.05). The regression-adjusted difference in HUI3, SF-6D, physical summary score, and mental summary score was 0.08 (P=0.04), 0.05 (P=0.004), 5.22 (P=0.001), and 5.73 (P<0.0001), respectively. Differences in the HUI2 and TTO scores were not significant after adjustment for demographic and clinical variables. Treatment failures were more likely to have missed work, volunteer opportunities, or household activities in the previous 3 months because of hepatitis C infection or its treatment (44 vs. 9%, P<0.001).CONCLUSIONS:Patients with a sustained response to antiviral therapy for chronic HCV infection have better quality of life than treatment failures do. Our study validates the benefits associated with the sustained response to antiviral therapy in a real-world clinic population and shows that these benefits are maintained over the long term.

Cost-effectiveness analyses of hepatitis A vaccine: a systematic review to explore the effect of methodological quality on the economic attractiveness of vaccination strategies.

Cost-effectiveness/cost-utility studies of hepatitis A vaccine were identified via a series of literature searches (MEDLINE, EMBASE, HSTAR and SSCI). Citations and full-text articles were reviewed independently by two reviewers. Reference searching, author searches and expert consultation ensured literature saturation. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) were abstracted for base-case analyses, converted to

The natural history of hepatitis C infection acquired through injection drug use: Meta-analysis and meta-regression

US, year 2005 values, and categorised to reflect various levels of cost effectiveness. Quality of reporting, methodological issues and key modelling issues were assessed using frameworks published in the literature.Thirty-one cost-effectiveness studies (including 12 cost-utility analyses) were included from full-text article review (n = 58) and citation screening (n = 570). These studies evaluated universal mass vaccination (n = 14), targeted vaccination (n = 17) and vaccination of susceptibles (i.e. individuals initially screened for antibody and, if susceptible, vaccinated) [n = 13]. For universal vaccination, 50% of the ICERs were <

Industry sponsored bias in cost effectiveness analyses

US20 000 per QALY or life-year gained. Analyses evaluating vaccination in children, particularly in high incidence areas, produced the most attractive ICERs. For targeted vaccination, cost effectiveness was highly dependent on the risk of infection.Incidence, vaccine cost and discount rate were the most influential parameters in sensitivity analyses. Overall, analyses that evaluated the combined hepatitis A/hepatitis B vaccine, adjusted incidence for under-reporting, included societal costs and that came from studies of higher methodological quality tended to have more attractive cost-effectiveness ratios. Methodological quality varied across studies. Major methodological flaws included inappropriate model type, comparator, incidence estimate and inclusion/exclusion of costs.

A Systematic Review and Methodological Evaluation of Published Cost-Effectiveness Analyses of Aromatase Inhibitors versus Tamoxifen in Early Stage Breast Cancer

BACKGROUND & AIMS Our aim was to estimate the rate of progression to cirrhosis for those infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) through injection drug use. METHODS We searched the published literature for articles assessing cirrhosis in this population and abstracted data on cirrhosis prevalence, mean duration of infection, mean age, mean alanine aminotransferase (ALT) enzyme levels, proportion of males, proportion HIV co-infected, proportion consuming excessive alcohol, and study setting. Summary progression rates were estimated using weighted averages and random effects Poisson meta-regression. The impact of co-variates was assessed by estimating the posterior probability that the relative risk (RR) of progression exceeded 1.0. RESULTS A total of 47 published articles were identified. After adjusting for covariates in 44 studies representing 6457 patients, the estimated rate of progression to cirrhosis, was 8.1 per 1000 person-years (95% credible region (CR), 3.9-14.7). This corresponds to a 20-year cirrhosis prevalence of 14.8% (95% CR, 7.5-25.5). A 5% increase in the proportion of male participants and a 5% increase in the proportion consuming excessive alcohol were associated with faster progression (probability RR>1=0.97 and 0.92, respectively). A 5% increase in the proportion of HIV co-infected, an increase in ALT of 5 IU/L and studies in settings with a high risk of referral bias were not associated with faster progression (probability RR>1=0.42, 0.65, and 0.43, respectively). CONCLUSIONS Analysis of aggregate level data suggests that for patients who contracted HCV through injection drug use prognosis is poor in populations with many male patients and high levels of alcohol consumption.

Cost Effectiveness of Hepatitis C-Related Interventions Targeting Substance Users and Other High-Risk Groups

Evidence is growing that the involvement of industry in cost effectiveness analyses can affect the findings. A systematic review of published cost-utility analyses found that industry funded studies were more than twice as likely to report a cost-utility ratio below

A glimpse into the black box of cost-effectiveness analyses

20 000 (£12 700;

Potential Savings of Harmonising Hospital and Community Formularies for Chronic Disease Medications Initiated in Hospital

14 850) per quality adjusted life year (QALY) as studies sponsored by non-industry sources.1 The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in the United Kingdom found that cost effectiveness analyses submitted by manufacturers produced significantly lower ratios than those derived by assessors at academic centres⇓.2 Getty A study recently published in the International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care build on these findings.3 Garattini and colleagues assessed the relation between industry sponsorship and the findings of pharmacoeconomic analyses performed on single drug treatments from 2004 to 2009. About 95% of 138 analyses sponsored by industry had favourable results compared with only 50% of those without industry sponsorship. Favourable findings were more likely even if the author was affiliated with any consultancy. Despite a lack of clarity regarding some of the investigators’ methodological choices—for example, it was unclear …

Effectiveness of Diagnostic Strategies in Suspected Delayed Cerebral Ischemia A Decision Analysis

Background A key priority in developing policies for providing affordable cancer care is measuring the value for money of new therapies using cost-effectiveness analyses (CEAs). For CEA to be useful it should focus on relevant outcomes and include thorough investigation of uncertainty. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of five years of aromatase inhibitors (AI) versus five years of tamoxifen in the treatment of post-menopausal women with early stage breast cancer, show benefit of AI in terms of disease free survival (DFS) but not overall survival (OS) and indicate higher risk of fracture with AI. Policy-relevant CEA of AI versus tamoxifen should focus on OS and include analysis of uncertainty over key assumptions. Methods We conducted a systematic review of published CEAs comparing an AI to tamoxifen. We searched Ovid MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsychINFO, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews without language restrictions. We selected CEAs with outcomes expressed as cost per life year or cost per quality adjusted life year (QALY). We assessed quality using the Neumann checklist. Using structured forms two abstractors collected descriptive information, sources of data, baseline assumptions on effectiveness and adverse events, and recorded approaches to assessing parameter uncertainty, methodological uncertainty, and structural uncertainty. Results We identified 1,622 citations and 18 studies met inclusion criteria. All CE estimates assumed a survival benefit for aromatase inhibitors. Twelve studies performed sensitivity analysis on the risk of adverse events and 7 assumed no additional mortality risk with any adverse event. Sub-group analysis was limited; 6 studies examined older women, 2 examined women with low recurrence risk, and 1 examined women with multiple comorbidities. Conclusion Published CEAs comparing AIs to tamoxifen assumed an OS benefit though none has been shown in RCTs, leading to an overestimate of the cost-effectiveness of AIs. Results of these CEA analyses may be suboptimal for guiding policy.