antihypertensive therapy cost effective in older age groups

10 PHARMACOECONOMICS

Antihypertensive therapy cost e1Iective in older age groups

It is generally cost effective to treat hypertension in mcn and women aged> 45 years who have a pretreat­ment diastol ic BP of ~ 90mm Hg, says Magnus Johannesson. However, it is not cost effective to treat younger palicms with mi ld hypertension (diastolic BP :-; l 04mm Hg), he adds.

Mr l ohannesson. from the Stockholm School of Economics in Sweden, conducted a cost-effectiveness analysis of antihypertensive therapy in differcn! patient groups in that country. He used a computer si mu lation model thai was based on risk functions for coronary heart di sease and stroke from the Framingham heart study. Resu hs of the most recent meta-analysis of antihypertensive treatment were used to determine the risk reduction associated with therapy - the values were 16% and 38% for coronary heart disease and stroke, respectively. The annual cost of treating hypertension in Sweden is estimated at around SEK3OOO1patient.

Costllife-year gained of antihypertensi-ve therapy in Sweden· .... Ag.(.,...) (mmHg)

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• SEK 1housan!;Is; 1992 valoos

•• pralreatment dla.s1Olic

Interest ingly. the cost/life-year gained of antihyper­tensive therapy decreased with increasing age and pretreatment diastolic BP fo r both men and women [see table!. The difference in cost effectiveness between the youngest group and the other 2 age groups is large. according 10 Mr Jo hannesson. He points oul that in most analyses. interventions with cost-effectiveness ratios < SEK 100 OOOllife-year gained are considered high ly cost effective. JoIwu>eo.on M. Tbc =! ~ffectiv<nclo> ofhypmcn.ion UUtmen! in Sweden.

I'bantU<:1)EoonoITUC' 7: 242· 250. Mar 1\195 "",,,,,n

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