the scope of costs in alcohol studies cost-of-illness studies differ from economic evaluations酒精研究cost-of-illness研究成本的范围不同于经济评估.pdfVIP

van Gils et al. Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation 2010, 8:15 /content/8/1/15 R E V I E W Open Access Review The scope of costs in alcohol studies: Cost-of-illness studies differ from economic evaluations Paul F van Gils*†1, Heleen H Hamberg-van Reenen†2, Matthijs van den Berg†2, Luqman Tariq†1 and G Ardine de Wit†1,3 Abstract Background: Alcohol abuse results in problems on various levels in society. In terms of health, alcohol abuse is not only an important risk factor for chronic disease, but it is also related to injuries. Social harms which can be related to drinking include interpersonal problems, work problems, violent and other crimes. The scope of societal costs related to alcohol abuse in principle should be the same for both economic evaluations and cost-of-illness studies. In general, economic evaluations report a small part of all societal costs. To determine the cost- effectiveness of an intervention it is necessary that all costs and benefits are included. The purpose of this study is to describe and quantify the difference in societal costs incorporated in economic evaluations and cost-of-illness studies on alcohol abuse. Method: To investigate the economic costs attributable to alcoho l in cost-of-illness studies we used the results of a recent systematic review (June 2009). We performed a PubMed search to identify economic evaluations on alcohol interventions. Only economic evaluations in which two or more interventions were compared from a societal perspective were included. The proportion of health care costs and the proportion of societal costs were estimated in both type of studies. Results: The proportion of healthcare costs in cost-of-illness studies was 17% and the proportion of societal costs 83%. In economic evaluations, the proportion of healthcare costs was 57%, an