title: Cost-effectiveness of a telephone-delivered education programme to prevent early childhood caries in a disadvantaged area: a cohort study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Early childhood caries is a highly destructive dental disease which is compounded by the need for young children to be treated under general anaesthesia. In Australia, there are long waiting periods for treatment at public hospitals. In this paper, we examined the costs and patient outcomes of a prevention programme for early childhood caries to assess its value for government services.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cost-effectiveness analysis using a Markov model.
  
  
  METHODS
  Public dental patients in a low socioeconomic, socially disadvantaged area in the State of Queensland, Australia.
  
  
  METHODS
  Children aged 6 months to 6 years received either a telephone prevention programme or usual care.
  
  
  METHODS
  A mathematical model was used to assess caries incidence and public dental treatment costs for a cohort of children. Healthcare costs, treatment probabilities and caries incidence were modelled from 6 months to 6 years of age based on trial data from mothers and their children who received either a telephone prevention programme or usual care. Sensitivity analyses were used to assess the robustness of the findings to uncertainty in the model estimates.
  
  
  RESULTS
  By age 6 years, the telephone intervention programme had prevented an estimated 43 carious teeth and saved £69 984 in healthcare costs per 100 children. The results were sensitive to the cost of general anaesthesia (cost-savings range £36 043-£97 298) and the incidence of caries in the prevention group (cost-savings range £59 496-£83 368) and usual care (cost-savings range £46 833-£93 328), but there were cost savings in all scenarios.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A telephone intervention that aims to prevent early childhood caries is likely to generate considerable and immediate patient benefits and cost savings to the public dental health service in disadvantaged communities.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Paediatric Dentistry, The University of Queensland School of Dentistry, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pukallus
authors.forename: Kathryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Plonka
authors.forename: Sanjeewa
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kularatna
authors.forename: Louisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gordon
authors.forename: Adrian G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Barnett
authors.forename: Laurence
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Walsh
authors.forename: W Kim
authors.initials: WK
authors.lastname: Seow
keywords: Health Economics; Preventive Medicine