The potential health and economic effect of a Body Mass Index decrease in the overweight and obese population in Belgium.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to examine the health and economic consequences of a Body Mass Index decrease in the Belgian overweight and obese population over a 20-year time period. STUDY DESIGN: Health economic evaluation study. METHODS: A Markov decision-analytic model using a societal perspective was applied, projecting the one-year results of a one unit Body Mass Index decrease over a time horizon of 20 years. Scenario analysis was applied evaluating the effects on the results of an alternative modelling assumption. One-way sensitivity analysis and probabilistic sensitivity analysis were performed to assess the effects on the findings of varying key input parameters. RESULTS: A one unit Body Mass Index decrease resulted in improved health outcomes and cost savings/patient (overweight women: 785€, obese women: 1039€, overweight men: 613€, obese men: 864€). For the total overweight and obese population, a cost saving of 2.8 billion euros was estimated. Considering the economic value of the health impact would result in a total economic benefit of about 15.9 billion euros for the Belgian society over a 20 year time period. CONCLUSIONS: A one unit Body Mass Index reduction in the overweight and obese population in Belgium was found to be associated with improved health outcomes and cost savings. The evidence of such research can assist regulatory bodies in the allocation of healthcare budgets in a more efficient way.

Determinants of nonurgent use of the emergency department for pediatric patients in 12 hospitals in Belgium.

INTRODUCTION: The nonurgent use of the emergency department (ED) for pediatric patients is an increasing problem facing healthcare systems worldwide. To evaluate the magnitude of the phenomenon and to identify associated factors, an observational prospective survey was performed including all patients (<15 years) attending the ED in 12 Belgian hospitals during 2 weeks in autumn 2010. Use of ED was considered appropriate if at least one of the following criteria was met: child referred by doctor or police, brought by ambulance, in need for short stay, technical examination or orthopedic treatment, in-patient admission, or death. Among the 3,117 children, attending ED, 39.9 % (1,244) of visits were considered inappropriate. Five factors were significantly associated with inappropriate use: age of child, distance to ED, having a registered family doctor, out-of-hours visit, and geographic region. The adjusted odds ratio and 95 % confidence intervals are respectively-1.7 (1.3-2.0), 1.7 (1.3-2.2), 1.5 (1.1-2.2), 1.5 (1.2-1.9), and 0.6 (0.5-0.8). CONCLUSIONS: Almost 40 % of all paediatric ED attendances did not require hospital expertise. The risk of an inappropriate use of ED by pediatrician patients is predominantly associated with organizational and cultural factors. Access, equity, quality of care, and medical human resources availability have to be taken into account to design financially sustainable model of care for those patients. Furthermore, future research is needed to explain reasons why parents visit ED rather than using of primary-care services.

HOPE, an open platform for medical data management on the grid.

The paper describes a platform developed for the secure management and analysis of medical data and images in a grid environment. Designed for telemedicine and built upon the EGEE gLite middleware and particularly the metadata catalogue AMGA as well as the GridSphere web portal, the platform provides to healthcare professionals the capacity to upload and query medical information stored over distributed servers. A job submission environment is also available for data analysis. Security features include authentication and authorization by grid certificates, anonymization of medical data and image encryption. The platform is currently deployed on several sites in Europe and Asia and is being customized for applications in the field of telemedicine and medical physics.

Osteopathic care for low back pain and neck pain: A cost-utility analysis.

OBJECTIVES: The aim was to examine the health and economic consequences of osteopathic care for low back pain and neck pain in addition to usual care compared to usual care alone. DESIGN: A decision tree model considering a one-year time horizon was applied. The analysis occurred from a health insurance perspective only considering direct medical costs. The health effects were expressed as quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). MAIN OUTCOMES: The main outcome was the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER). The uncertainty around key input parameters was addressed applying one-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses (5000 simulations). RESULTS: For low back pain, osteopathy resulted in cost savings (€385.1 vs €501.8/patient) at improved QALYs (0.666 vs. 0.614) compared to usual care. For neck pain, osteopathy resulted in additional costs (€577.3 vs. €521.0) and improved QALYs (0.639 vs. 0.609) resulting in an ICER of €1,870/QALY. The one-way sensitivity analysis identified the hospitalization cost (back) and osteopathy cost (neck) as major cost drivers. The probabilistic sensitivity analysis resulted in an average net saving of €163 (95%CI-€260, -€49.1) and a QALY gain of 0.06 (95%CI -0.06, 0.17) for low back pain and an average additional cost of €55.1 (95%CI €20.9, €129) and improved QALY gain of 0.03 (95%CI-0.06, 0.12) for neck pain. CONCLUSIONS: Osteopathy was found to be a 'dominant' (low back pain) and cost-effective strategy (neck pain) compared to usual care. Further health economic evaluation studies considering a broader range of cost items and longer time horizon are required.

Health-related costs in a sample of premenopausal non-diabetic overweight or obese females in Antwerp region: a cost-of-illness analysis.

BACKGROUND: People with overweight or obesity are at increased risk for disease later in life which cause important health costs.The aim of this study was to estimate the health status and the corresponding costs in a sample of females with overweight or obesity which were participating in a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) exploring the effect of lifestyle habits changes on ectopic adipose tissue. METHODS: Sixty-two non-diabetic premenopausal females without major comorbidities of overweight and obesity were recruited among patients visiting endocrinologists at the obesity clinic of the University Hospital of Antwerp and the University of Antwerp.A RCT-embedded cost-of-illness approach with societal perspective, based on self-reported questionnaires and cost diaries (3 months recall) was applied to estimate the prevalence of different comorbidities and the related direct and indirect costs in this sample of overweight or obese females. The European Quality-of-Life-5D questionnaire was used to define the health state and the corresponding utility index of the participants. RESULTS: The average direct health costs and health utilities observed in this sample were comparable with the general Flemish female population. This may partially be explained by the strict inclusion criteria of the RCT (i.e. overweight or obesity without diabetes type 2 or cardiovascular diseases). However, 15% of the participants had five or more comorbidities resulting in higher average costs and lower average health utility as compared to the general population, only 3 participants were diagnozed with the metabolic syndrome. In this subsample productivity was low due to high average absenteeism, yielding important total costs for the society. CONCLUSION: Secondary prevention to avoid health deterioration in overweight or obese females without major comorbidies is needed to contain health care costs. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02831621, approval of the ethics committee of the University Hospital of Antwerp (number: 14/17/205 -ref: 7543075363).

Perceptions of mental health nurses and patients about health promotion in mental health care: a literature review.

The aim of this review was to examine the perceptions of patients with mental disorders and mental health nurses of health promotion targeting physical activity and eating habits in mental health care. An electronic search strategy was conducted. Furthermore, references were searched by hand-searching the reference lists of the retrieved articles from the electronic databases. The literature on perceptions of health promotion and lifestyle interventions in mental health care principally consist of qualitative studies using interviews and focus groups. Positive perceptions of both mental health nurses and patients towards health promotion targeting physical activity and eating habits in mental health care were identified. Contrary, several barriers for integrating healthy lifestyles into the daily life of patients were described. Patients usually want to learn more about healthy lifestyles, but see the ability to change their physical health as beyond their control. In this sense, support from mental health nurses is considered as important. Despite the awareness of the importance of health promotion in mental health care, it appears that visions and attitudes towards the potential of health promotion are in need of change.