title: Preventing the Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome in Australia: cost-effectiveness of thiamin-supplementation alternatives.
abstract: Alcoholic Wernicke's encephalopathy has been commonplace in Australia for many years and, as this syndrome is attributed to a deficiency in the diet, it should be preventable. This study employs conventional cost-effectiveness methodology to compare the economic efficiency of several thiamin-supplementation alternatives that have been proposed for the prevention of Wernicke's encephalopathy. A series of rankings of these measures is derived from an estimated cost per case averted for each of the alternatives studied. These rankings identify the least cost-effective thiamin-supplementation alternative as that of enriching bread-making flour with thiamin.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Connelly
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Price
mesh_terms: D000425:Alcohol Amnestic Disorder / Q000191:economics / Q000517:prevention & control*; D000434:Alcoholic Beverages; D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D005433:Flour; D005527:Food, Fortified / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D013831:Thiamine; D014899:Wernicke Encephalopathy / Q000191:economics / Q000517:prevention & control*
chemical_list: D013831:Thiamine