Anti-Hypertensive Treatment - Importance of Cost-Effectiveness Analysis

Abstract

The rising costs of medical care force us to perform pharmacoeconomic analyses aiming at cost optimalisation. Whereas the therapy benefits can be easily calculated based on the results of treatment programmes, the cost analysis is more complicated, because it requires considering not only medical costs (e.g. drug, diagnostic procedures, hospitalisation and treatment of complications) but also additional costs. Pharmacoeconomic analyses performed in Poland show that the cost of antihypertensive treatment is about 14 thousand million zloty per year. This sum consists of costs for medical consultations (31%), hospitalisations (21%), diagnostic procedures (11%) and drugs (only 10%). Pharmacoeconomic analyses, conducted also in Poland, comparing costs and effectivness of older (enalapril) and modern (perindopril) ACE inhibitors evidently show the reduction of total costs and better antyhypertensive efficacy with the use of longacting ACE inhibitors. The results of these studies prove the need of employing a wider perspective in considering problems of antihypertensive treatment costs. The cost-effectiveness of antihypertensive therapy should be evaluated on the basis of total therapy costs and the clinical effects of treatment.