- Title
- The cost-effectiveness of tailored, postal feedback on general practitioners' prescribing of pharmacotherapies for alcohol dependence
- Creator
- Navarro, Hector Jose; Shakeshaft, Anthony; Doran, Christopher M.; Petrie, Dennis J.
- Relation
- Drug and Alcohol Dependence Vol. 124, Issue 3, p. 207-215
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2012.01.007
- Publisher
- Elsevier Ireland
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2012
- Description
- Aims: The aims of this study were to conduct a randomised controlled trial to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of tailored, postal feedback on general practitioners’ (GPs) prescribing of acamprosate and naltrexone for alcohol dependence relative to current practice and its impact on alcohol dependence morbidity. Methods: Rural communities in New South Wales, Australia, were randomised into experimental (N = 10) and control (N = 10) communities. Tailored feedback on their prescribing of alcohol pharmacotherapies was mailed to GPs from the experimental communities (N = 115). Segmented regression analysis was used to examine within and between group changes in prescribing and alcohol dependence hospitalisation rates compared to the control communities. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) were estimated per additional prescription of pharmacotherapies and per alcohol dependence hospitalisation(s) averted. Results: Post-intervention changes, relative to the control communities, in GPs’ prescribing rate trends in the experimental communities significantly increased for acamprosate (β = 0.24, 95% CI: 0.13–0.35, p < 0.001), and significantly decreased for naltrexone (β = −0.12, 95% CI: −0.17 to −0.06) per quarter. Quarterly hospitalisation trend rates for alcohol dependence, as principal diagnosis, significantly decreased (β = −0.07, 95% CI: −0.13 to −0.01, p < 0.05), compared to control communities. The median ICER per quarterly hospitalisation(s) averted due to intervention was Dominant (Dominant – $12,750). Conclusion: Postal, tailored feedback to GPs on their prescribing of acamprosate and naltrexone for alcohol dependence was a cost-effective intervention, in rural communities of NSW, to increase the overall prescribing of pharmacotherapies with a plausible effect on incidence reduction of hospitalisations for alcohol dependence as principal diagnosis.
- Subject
- postal tailored feedback; alcohol dependence; general practitioner; cost-effectiveness
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1318363
- Identifier
- uon:23608
- Identifier
- ISSN:0376-8716
- Language
- eng
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