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)

." ...... ,,. ... w~ ... w~ ... w_ ....... .. , "'" .. '" " " ...... ". "'1M ,. '''' "

, 1()()-.104 636 " .. ,

" , co. .,,""

" " ... , .. = :;::;, Coo, ~' y

• 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

• Apr lW5 INPHARMA· 0156·2703J9510981-00010lS01.00<> AdJ, IlIIematioMI Llm_ llIti. All rlght..--vee!