Costs and cost-effectiveness of periviable care.
With increasing concerns regarding rapidly expanding healthcare costs, cost-effectiveness analysis allows assessment of whether marginal gains from new technology are worth the increased costs. Particular methodologic issues related to cost and cost-effectiveness analysis in the area of neonatal and periviable care include how costs are estimated, such as the use of charges and whether long-term costs are included; the challenges of measuring utilities; and whether to use a maternal, neonatal, or dual perspective in such analyses. A number of studies over the past three decades have examined the costs and the cost-effectiveness of neonatal and periviable care. Broadly, while neonatal care is costly, it is also cost effective as it produces both life-years and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs). However, as the gestational age of the neonate decreases, the costs increase and the cost-effectiveness threshold is harder to achieve. In the periviable range of gestational age (22-24 weeks of gestation), whether the care is cost effective is questionable and is dependent on the perspective. Understanding the methodology and salient issues of cost-effectiveness analysis is critical for researchers, editors, and clinicians to accurately interpret results of the growing body of cost-effectiveness studies related to the care of periviable pregnancies and neonates.
Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Oregon Health & Science University, 3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Rd, Portland, OR 97219. Electronic address: caughey@ohsu.edu.
Aaron B
AB
Caughey
Department of Pediatrics, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL.
David J
DJ
Burchfield
D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D005260:Female; D005328:Fetal Viability; D005865:Gestational Age; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006801:Humans; D052577:Infant, Extremely Low Birth Weight; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D011788:Quality of Life
Cost-effectiveness analysis; Cost–benefit analysis; Down syndrome; Economics; Prenatal diagnosis—economics