Margarida Borges

Efficacy of lipid lowering drug treatment for diabetic and non-diabetic patients : meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials

Abstract Objective To evaluate the clinical benefit of lipid lowering drug treatment in patients with and without diabetes mellitus, for primary and secondary prevention. Design Systematic review and meta-analysis. Data sources Cochrane, Medline, Embase, and reference lists up to April 2004. Study selection Randomised, placebo controlled, double blind trials with a follow-up of at least three years that evaluated lipid lowering drug treatment in patients with and without diabetes mellitus. Data extraction Two independent reviewers extracted data. The primary outcome was major coronary events defined as coronary heart disease death, non-fatal myocardial infarction, or myocardial revascularisation procedures. Results Twelve studies were included. Lipid lowering drug treatment was found to be at least as effective in diabetic patients as in non-diabetic patients. In primary prevention, the risk reduction for major coronary events was 21% (95% confidence interval 11% to 30%; P < 0.0001) in diabetic patients and 23% (12% to 33%; P = 0.0003) in non-diabetic patients. In secondary prevention, the corresponding risk reductions were 21% (10% to 31%; P = 0.0005) and 23% (19% to 26%; P ≤ 0.00001). However, the absolute risk difference was three times higher in secondary prevention. When results were adjusted for baseline risk, diabetic patients benefited more in both primary and secondary prevention. Blood lipids were reduced to a similar degree in both groups. Conclusions The evidence that lipid lowering drug treatment (especially statins) significantly reduce cardiovascular risk in diabetic and non-diabetic patients is strong and suggests that diabetic patients benefit more, in both primary and secondary prevention. Future research should define the threshold for treatment of these patients and the desired target lipid concentrations, especially for primary prevention.

Clinical comparability of the new antiepileptic drugs in refractory partial epilepsy : a systematic review and meta-analysis

Purpose:  Evaluate the clinical comparability of new antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) in partial refractory epilepsy.

The Burden of Disease and the Cost of Illness Attributable to Alcohol Drinking—Results of a National Study

BACKGROUND AND AIMS The World Health Organization estimated that 3.2% of the burden of disease around the world is attributable to the consumption of alcohol. The aim of this study is to estimate the burden of disease attributable to alcohol consumption in Portugal. METHODS Burden and costs of diseases attributable to alcohol drinking were estimated based on demographic and health statistics available for 2005, using the Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALY) lost generated by death or disability. RESULTS In Portugal, 3.8% of deaths are attributable to alcohol (4,059 of 107,839). After measuring the DALY generated by mortality data, the proportion of disease attributable to alcohol was 5.0%, with men having 5.6% of deaths and 6.2% of disease burden, while female figures were, respectively, 1.8 and 2.4%. Considering the sum of death and disability DALYs, liver diseases represented the main source of the burden attributable to alcohol with 31.5% of total DALYs, followed by traffic accidents (28.2%) and several types of cancer (19.2%). As for the cost of illness incurred by the health system, our results indicate that 95.1 millions euros are attributable to alcohol-related disease admissions (liver diseases, cancer, traffic accidents, and external causes) while the ambulatory costs of alcohol-related diseases were estimated in 95.9 million euros, totaling 191.0 million euros direct costs, representing 0.13% of Gross Domestic Product and 1.25% of total national health expenditures. An alternative analysis was carried out using higher consumption levels so as to replicate aggregate alcohol consumption statistics. In this case, DALYs lost increased by 11.7% and health costs by 23%. CONCLUSION Our results confirm that alcohol is an important health risk factor in Portugal and a heavy economic burden for the health system, with hepatic diseases ranking first as a source of burden of disease attributable to alcohol.

Carga da doença atribuível ao tabagismo em Portugal

Resumo A Organizacao Mundial de Saude (OMS) estimou no seu relatorio de 2002 que cerca de 14% da carga da doenca nos paises mais ricos seja atribuivel ao consumo de produtos de tabaco. As doencas mais relacionadas com o consumo de tabaco incluem um conjunto de doencas cardiovasculares, neoplasias e doencas respiratorias. Este artigo estima a carga da doenca atribuivel ao tabaco em Portugal, tomando como base os dados das estatisticas demograficas e de saude disponiveis para Portugal em 2005. A conclusao final da analise e que 11,7% das mortes em Portugal se podem atribuir ao consumo de tabaco. Se medirmos a carga da doenca atraves dos anos de vida ajustados por incapacidade – disability adjusted life years (DALY) gerados pela mortalidade, as proporcao da carga da doenca atribuivel ao tabaco e 11,2%. A divisao entre sexos e muito desigual, ja que 15,4% da carga da doenca masculina e 17,7% das mortes sao atribuiveis ao tabaco, mas apenas 4,9% da carga da doenca feminina e 5,2% das mortes. Estes numeros para a mortalidade atribuivel sao mais elevados do que as estimativas anteriormente disponiveis para Portugal (Peto et al. 2006), as quais apontavam para 14% das mortes masculinas e apenas 0,9% das femininas. O artigo apresenta estimativas sobre a carga da doenca redutivel, ou seja, as reducoes de mortalidade e DALY que ocorreriam se os fumadores abandonassem o tabagismo e passassem a experimentar o risco medio das populacoes de ex-fumadores, o qual e superior ao dos nunca fumadores mas inferior ao dos fumadores. As estimativas sao que a carga da doenca medida pelos DALY se reduziria em 5,8% (7,8% dos homens e 2,8% das mulheres) e que as mortes se reduziriam em 5,8% (8,5% homens e 2,9% mulheres). O artigo inclui igualmente estimativas dos DALY perdidos por incapacidade. As doencas relacionadas com o tabagismo geraram 121 643 DALY, dos quais 72 126 (59%) sao atribuiveis ao tabagismo e 12 417 (10%) sao redutiveis. Rev Port Pneumol 2009; XV (6): 951-1004

The burden of disease attributable to smoking in Portugal.

The World Health Organizations (WHO) 2002 Annual Report estimated that about 14% of the burden of disease in wealthier countries is attributable to smoking. Smoking related diseases include cardiovascular diseases, cancer and respiratory diseases. This paper presents an estimate of the burden of disease attributable to smoking in Portugal. The estimates are based on the Portuguese demographic and health statistics available for 2005. The most important conclusion of the analysis is that 11.7% of deaths in Portugal are attributable to smoking. If we use disability adjusted life years (DALYs) to measure the burden of disease, we find that 11.2% of death DALYs in Portugal is attributable to smoking. The gender distribution of this amount is very unequal; 15.4% of the male burden of disease and 17.7% of all male deaths can be attributed to smoking, but only 4.9% of the female burden of disease and 5.2% of all female deaths. These estimates are higher than death estimates previously available (Peto et al. 2006); 14% in men and only 0.9% in women. This paper also presents estimates of the burden of reducible disease, that is, the reduction in mortality and DALYs that would occur if all current smokers quit and thus experienced the mean risk of ex-smokers, which is lower than for current smokers but typically not as low as for never-smokers. Our estimates are that the burden of disease would decrease by 5.8% (7.8% in men and 2.8% in women), and that deaths would decrease by 5.8% as well (with an 8.5% and 2.9% decrease in men and women, respectively). The paper also includes estimates of the burden of disease generated by smoking related disability. Smoking related illnesses generated 121,643 DALYs, 72,126 (59%) of which are attributable to smoking and 12,417 would be reducible if all smokers were to quit.

Embolia pulmonar em Portugal : epidemiologia e mortalidade intra-hospitalar

INTRODUCTION In Portugal, the epidemiology of acute pulmonary embolism is poorly understood. In this study, we sought to characterize the pulmonary embolism from the hospital data and evaluate its in-hospital mortality and respective prognostic factors. MATERIAL AND METHODS The study used diagnostic related groups data from National Health System hospitals from 2003 to 2013 and National Statistics Institute population data to establish the evolution of admissions with the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism, their inhospital mortality rates and the population incidence rates. Diagnosis-related group microdata were used in a logit regression modeling in-hospital mortality as a function of individual characteristics and context variables. RESULTS Between 2003 and 2013 there were 35,200 episodes of hospitalization in patients with 18 or more years in which one of the diagnoses was pulmonary embolism (primary diagnosis in 67% of cases). The estimated incidence rate in 2013 was 35/100,000 population (≥ 18 years). Between 2003 and 2013, the annual number of episodes kept increasing, but the in-hospital mortality rate decreased (from 31.8% to 17% for all cases and from 25% to 11.2% when pulmonary embolism was the main diagnosis). The probability of death decreases when there is a computerized tomography scan registry or when patients are females and increases with age and the presence of co-morbidities. DISCUSSION In the last decade there was an increased incidence of pulmonary embolism likely related to an increased number of dependents and bedridden. However, there was a in-hospital mortality reduction of such size that the actual mortality in the general population was reduced. One possible explanation is that there has been an increase in episodes of pulmonary embolism with incrementally lower levels of severity, due to the greater capacity of diagnosis of less severe cases. Another possible explanation is greater effectiveness of hospital care. According to the logistic regression analysis, improvements in hospital care effectiveness in recent years are primarily responsible for the mortality reduction. CONCLUSION About 79% of the reduction of in-hospital mortality of pulmonary embolism between 2003 and 2013 can be attributed to greater effectiveness of hospital care and the rest to the favorable change in patient characteristics associated with risk of death.

Custo‐efetividade dos novos anticoagulantes orais na fibrilhação auricular em Portugal

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES Recently, three novel non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants received approval for reimbursement in Portugal for patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (AF). It is therefore important to evaluate the relative cost-effectiveness of these new oral anticoagulants in Portuguese AF patients. METHODS A Markov model was used to analyze disease progression over a lifetime horizon. Relative efficacy data for stroke (ischemic and hemorrhagic), bleeding (intracranial, other major bleeding and clinically relevant non-major bleeding), myocardial infarction and treatment discontinuation were obtained by pairwise indirect comparisons between apixaban, dabigatran and rivaroxaban using warfarin as a common comparator. Data on resource use were obtained from the database of diagnosis-related groups and an expert panel. Model outputs included life years gained, quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), direct healthcare costs and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs). RESULTS Apixaban provided the most life years gained and QALYs. The ICERs of apixaban compared to warfarin and dabigatran were €5529/QALY and €9163/QALY, respectively. Apixaban was dominant over rivaroxaban (greater health gains and lower costs). The results were robust over a wide range of inputs in sensitivity analyses. Apixaban had a 70% probability of being cost-effective (at a threshold of €20 000/QALY) compared to all the other therapeutic options. CONCLUSIONS Apixaban is a cost-effective alternative to warfarin and dabigatran and is dominant over rivaroxaban in AF patients from the perspective of the Portuguese national healthcare system. These conclusions are based on indirect comparisons, but despite this limitation, the information is useful for healthcare decision-makers.

Carga e custo da fibrilhação auricular em Portugal

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES Atrial fibrillation is the most prevalent sustained arrhythmia. This paper estimates the burden and cost of illness attributable to atrial fibrillation in Portugal based on demographic and health statistics. METHODS Mortality data by cause of death came from the European Detailed Mortality Database of the World Health Organization (WHO). Hospital data were taken from the Portuguese diagnosis-related groups database. The burden of disease was measured using DALYs (disability-adjusted life years), a metric adopted by the WHO. Costs studied included resource use and lost productivity. The burden and cost of illness are those attributable to atrial fibrillation and its main complication, ischemic stroke. RESULTS In Portugal, 4070 deaths were attributable to atrial fibrillation in 2010, corresponding to 3.8% of all deaths. In total, the burden of disease attributable to atrial fibrillation was estimated at 23,084 DALYs: 10,521 resulting from premature deaths (1.7% of the total DALYs due to death in 2010 in Portugal), and 12,563 resulting from disability. The total estimated direct costs attributable to atrial fibrillation at 2013 prices were €115 million: €34 million for inpatient care and €81 million for outpatient care. Indirect costs resulting from lost production due to disability were estimated at €25 million. CONCLUSIONS Atrial fibrillation has an important social impact in Portugal due to its associated mortality and morbidity, and was responsible in 2013 for a total cost of €140 million, about 0.08% of gross domestic product.

The cost and burden of schizophrenia in Portugal in 2015

Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Lisbon, Portugal Centro de Estudos de Medicina Baseada na Evidência, Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal Centro Hospitalar de Lisboa Central, EPE, Lisbon, Portugal Laboratório de Farmacologia Clínica e Terapêutica, Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

Cost-effectiveness of the 13-valent Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine in Children in Portugal

Background: Pneumococcal infections are the leading cause of vaccine-preventable death in children. In June 2015, the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) was introduced in the Portuguese Immunization Program. We evaluated the cost-effectiveness of children vaccinated with PCV13 versus no vaccination for preventing pneumococcal diseases. Methods: A cohort simulation model for 2014 Portuguese newborns was used, considering a lifetime horizon and existence of herd effect on adults. Model outcomes measured life years gained, direct and indirect healthcare costs and net benefits considering &OV0556;20,000 per life years gained. PCV13 clinical effectiveness rate by serotype covered was assumed similar to PCV7. Patients’ resource use was based on 2014 diagnostic-related group database and experts’ opinion, while national legislation and official drug cost database were the main sources for unitary costs. Univariate sensitivity analyses were conducted to assess results’ effectiveness. Results: In base case scenario, PCV13 was a dominant strategy, being associated with better health outcomes and lower costs. In a lifetime, a total of 6238 infections (excluding acute otitis media) and 130 deaths were averted, with a total saving of &OV0556;397,217 (