title: Measuring Health Spillovers for Economic Evaluation: A Case Study in Meningitis.
abstract: The health of carers and others close to the patient will often be relevant to economic evaluation, but it is very rarely considered in practice. This may reflect a lack of understanding of how the spillover effect of illness can be appropriately quantified. In this study we used three different approaches to quantify health spillovers resulting from meningitis. We conducted a survey of 1218 family networks affected by meningitis and used regression modelling to estimate spillover effects. The findings show that meningitis had long-term effects on family members' health, particularly affecting the likelihood of family members reporting anxiety and depression. These effects extended beyond a single close family member. These findings suggest that vaccinating against meningitis will bring significant health benefits not just to those that might have contracted the illness but also to their family networks. In methodological terms, different approaches for quantifying health spillovers provided broadly consistent results. The choice of method will be influenced by the ease of collecting primary data from family members in intervention contexts. © 2015 The Authors. Health Economics published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
authors.affiliation: Health Economics Unit, School of Health and Population Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
authors.forename: Hareth
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Al-Janabi
authors.affiliation: Institute of Health Policy and Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Job
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-4178-1777
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Van Exel
authors.affiliation: Institute of Health Policy and Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Werner
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Brouwer
authors.affiliation: Disease Dynamics Unit, Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Trotter
authors.affiliation: Meningitis Research Foundation, Bristol, UK.
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Glennie
authors.affiliation: Meningitis Research Foundation, Bristol, UK.
authors.forename: Laurie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hannigan
authors.affiliation: Health Economics Unit, School of Health and Population Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
authors.forename: Joanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Coast
mesh_terms: D001428:Bacterial Vaccines / Q000008:administration & dosage; D017028:Caregivers / Q000191:economics* / Q000523:psychology; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis / Q000191:economics*; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008581:Meningitis / Q000453:epidemiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
chemical_list: D001428:Bacterial Vaccines
keywords: EQ-5D; economic evaluation; health valuation; informal care; spillovers