title: Cost-effectiveness of an opportunistic screening programme and brief intervention for excessive alcohol use in primary care.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Effective prevention of excessive alcohol use has the potential to reduce the public burden of disease considerably. We investigated the cost-effectiveness of Screening and Brief Intervention (SBI) for excessive alcohol use in primary care in the Netherlands, which is targeted at early detection and treatment of 'at-risk' drinkers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We compared a SBI scenario (opportunistic screening and brief intervention for 'at-risk' drinkers) in general practices with the current practice scenario (no SBI) in The Netherlands. We used the RIVM Chronic Disease Model (CDM) to extrapolate from decreased alcohol consumption to effects on health care costs and Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) gained. Probabilistic sensitivity analysis was employed to study the effect of uncertainty in the model parameters. In total, 56,000 QALYs were gained at an additional cost of 298,000,000 euros due to providing alcohol SBI in the target population, resulting in a cost-effectiveness ratio of 5,400 euros per QALY gained.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Prevention of excessive alcohol use by implementing SBI for excessive alcohol use in primary care settings appears to be cost-effective.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Prevention and Health Services Research, National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, The Netherlands. luqman.tariq@rivm.nl
authors.forename: Luqman
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tariq
authors.forename: Matthijs
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: van den Berg
authors.forename: Rudolf T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Hoogenveen
authors.forename: Pieter H M
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: van Baal
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000191:economics* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000191:economics*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000191:economics*; D019057:Quality-Adjusted Life Years