title: Health economics in the field of osteoarthritis: an expert's consensus paper from the European Society for Clinical and Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis and Osteoarthritis (ESCEO).
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  There is an important need to evaluate therapeutic approaches for osteoarthritis (OA) in terms of cost-effectiveness as well as efficacy.
  
  
  METHODS
  The ESCEO expert working group met to discuss the epidemiological and economic evidence that justifies the increasing concern of the impact of this disease and reviewed the current state-of-the-art in health economic studies in this field.
  
  
  RESULTS
  OA is a debilitating disease; it is increasing in frequency and is associated with a substantial and growing burden on society, in terms of both burden of illness and cost of illness. Economic evaluations in this field are relatively rare, and those that do exist, show considerable heterogeneity of methodological approach (such as indicated population, comparator, decision context and perspective, time horizon, modeling and outcome measures used). This heterogeneity makes comparisons between studies problematic.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Better adherence to guidelines for economic evaluations is needed. There was strong support for the definition of a reference case and for what might constitute "standard optimal care" in terms of best clinical practice, for the control arms of interventional studies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Services Research, School for Public Health and Primary Care (CAPHRI), Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD, Maastricht, The Netherlands; Department of Public Health, Epidemiology and Health Economics, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium. Electronic address: m.hiligsmann@maastrichtuniversity.nl.
authors.forename: Mickaël
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hiligsmann
authors.forename: Cyrus
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.forename: Nigel
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Arden
authors.forename: Maarten
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Boers
authors.forename: Jaime C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Branco
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Luisa Brandi
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Bruyère
authors.forename: Francis
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Guillemin
authors.forename: Marc C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Hochberg
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Hunter
authors.forename: John A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Kanis
authors.forename: Tore K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Kvien
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Laslop
authors.forename: Jean-Pierre
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Pelletier
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pinto
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Reiter-Niesert
authors.forename: René
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rizzoli
authors.forename: Lucio C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Rovati
authors.forename: Johan L Hans
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Severens
authors.forename: Stuart
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Silverman
authors.forename: Yannis
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tsouderos
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tugwell
authors.forename: Jean-Yves
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Reginster
mesh_terms: D032921:Consensus; D017281:Cost of Illness; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D010003:Osteoarthritis / Q000191:economics* / Q000628:therapy; D011788:Quality of Life
keywords: Arthroplasty; Cost-effectiveness; Cost–utility; Economics; Methods; Osteoarthritis; Review