An economic evaluation of home management of malaria in Uganda: an interactive Markov model

BACKGROUND: Home management of malaria (HMM), promoting presumptive treatment of febrile children in the community, is advocated to improve prompt appropriate treatment of malaria in Africa. The cost-effectiveness of HMM is likely to vary widely in different settings and with the antimalarial drugs...

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Main Authors: Lubell, Y, Mills, A, Whitty, C, Staedke, S
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science 2010
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author Lubell, Y
Mills, A
Whitty, C
Staedke, S
author_facet Lubell, Y
Mills, A
Whitty, C
Staedke, S
author_sort Lubell, Y
collection OXFORD
description BACKGROUND: Home management of malaria (HMM), promoting presumptive treatment of febrile children in the community, is advocated to improve prompt appropriate treatment of malaria in Africa. The cost-effectiveness of HMM is likely to vary widely in different settings and with the antimalarial drugs used. However, no data on the cost-effectiveness of HMM programmes are available. METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A Markov model was constructed to estimate the cost-effectiveness of HMM as compared to conventional care for febrile illnesses in children without HMM. The model was populated with data from Uganda, but is designed to be interactive, allowing the user to adjust certain parameters, including the antimalarials distributed. The model calculates the cost per disability adjusted life year averted and presents the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio compared to a threshold value. Model output is stratified by level of malaria transmission and the probability that a child would receive appropriate care from a health facility, to indicate the circumstances in which HMM is likely to be cost-effective. The model output suggests that the cost-effectiveness of HMM varies with malaria transmission, the probability of appropriate care, and the drug distributed. Where transmission is high and the probability of appropriate care is limited, HMM is likely to be cost-effective from a provider perspective. Even with the most effective antimalarials, HMM remains an attractive intervention only in areas of high malaria transmission and in medium transmission areas with a lower probability of appropriate care. HMM is generally not cost-effective in low transmission areas, regardless of which antimalarial is distributed. Considering the analysis from the societal perspective decreases the attractiveness of HMM. CONCLUSION: Syndromic HMM for children with fever may be a useful strategy for higher transmission settings with limited health care and diagnosis, but is not appropriate for all settings. HMM may need to be tailored to specific settings, accounting for local malaria transmission intensity and availability of health services.
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spelling oxford-uuid:a06ce513-29a3-4a9c-9725-1fcf5f0090542022-03-27T02:05:22ZAn economic evaluation of home management of malaria in Uganda: an interactive Markov modelJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:a06ce513-29a3-4a9c-9725-1fcf5f009054EnglishSymplectic Elements at OxfordPublic Library of Science2010Lubell, YMills, AWhitty, CStaedke, S BACKGROUND: Home management of malaria (HMM), promoting presumptive treatment of febrile children in the community, is advocated to improve prompt appropriate treatment of malaria in Africa. The cost-effectiveness of HMM is likely to vary widely in different settings and with the antimalarial drugs used. However, no data on the cost-effectiveness of HMM programmes are available. METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A Markov model was constructed to estimate the cost-effectiveness of HMM as compared to conventional care for febrile illnesses in children without HMM. The model was populated with data from Uganda, but is designed to be interactive, allowing the user to adjust certain parameters, including the antimalarials distributed. The model calculates the cost per disability adjusted life year averted and presents the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio compared to a threshold value. Model output is stratified by level of malaria transmission and the probability that a child would receive appropriate care from a health facility, to indicate the circumstances in which HMM is likely to be cost-effective. The model output suggests that the cost-effectiveness of HMM varies with malaria transmission, the probability of appropriate care, and the drug distributed. Where transmission is high and the probability of appropriate care is limited, HMM is likely to be cost-effective from a provider perspective. Even with the most effective antimalarials, HMM remains an attractive intervention only in areas of high malaria transmission and in medium transmission areas with a lower probability of appropriate care. HMM is generally not cost-effective in low transmission areas, regardless of which antimalarial is distributed. Considering the analysis from the societal perspective decreases the attractiveness of HMM. CONCLUSION: Syndromic HMM for children with fever may be a useful strategy for higher transmission settings with limited health care and diagnosis, but is not appropriate for all settings. HMM may need to be tailored to specific settings, accounting for local malaria transmission intensity and availability of health services.
spellingShingle Lubell, Y
Mills, A
Whitty, C
Staedke, S
An economic evaluation of home management of malaria in Uganda: an interactive Markov model
title An economic evaluation of home management of malaria in Uganda: an interactive Markov model
title_full An economic evaluation of home management of malaria in Uganda: an interactive Markov model
title_fullStr An economic evaluation of home management of malaria in Uganda: an interactive Markov model
title_full_unstemmed An economic evaluation of home management of malaria in Uganda: an interactive Markov model
title_short An economic evaluation of home management of malaria in Uganda: an interactive Markov model
title_sort economic evaluation of home management of malaria in uganda an interactive markov model
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