Journal Article

Economic evaluation of telephone-based weight loss support for patients with knee osteoarthritis: a randomised controlled trial

Wiggers, John, Campbell, Elizabeth, Haskins, Robin, Hodder, Rebecca K., Robson, Emma K., O’Brien, Kate M., van Dongen, Johanna M., Rissel, Chris, Williams, Christopher M., Kamper, Steven J., Williams, Amanda

2018

Overview

Background The prevalence of knee osteoarthritis is increasing worldwide. Obesity is an important modifiable risk factor for both the incidence and progression of knee osteoarthritis. Consequently, international guidelines recommend all patients with knee osteoarthritis who are overweight receive support to lose weight. However, few overweight patients with this condition receive care to support weight loss. Telephone-based interventions are one potential solution to provide scalable care to the many patients with knee osteoarthritis. The objective of this study is to evaluate, from a societal perspective, the cost-utility and cost-effectiveness of a telephone-based weight management and healthy lifestyle service for patients with knee osteoarthritis, who are overweight or obese. Methods An economic evaluation was undertaken alongside a pragmatic randomised controlled trial. Between May 19 and June 30, 2015, 120 patients with knee osteoarthritis were randomly assigned to an intervention or usual care control group in a 1:1 ratio. Participants in the intervention group received a referral to an existing non-disease specific 6-month telephone-based weight management and healthy lifestyle service. Quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) was the utility measure and knee pain intensity, disability, weight, and body mass index (BMI) were the clinical measures of effect. Costs included intervention costs, healthcare utilisation costs (healthcare services and medication use) and absenteeism costs due to knee pain. Data was collected at baseline, 6 weeks and 26 weeks. The primary cost-effectiveness analysis was performed from the societal perspective. Results Mean cost differences between groups (intervention minus control) were $493 (95%CI: -3513 to 5363) for healthcare costs, $-32 (95%CI: -73 to 13) for medication costs, and $125 (95%CI: -151 to 486) for absenteeism costs. The total mean difference in societal costs was $1197 (95%CI: -2887 to 6106). For QALYs and all clinical measures of effect, the probability of the intervention being cost-effective compared with usual care was less than 0.36 at all willingness-to-pay values. Conclusions From a societal perspective, telephone-based weight loss support, provided using an existing non-disease specific 6-month weight management and healthy lifestyle service was not cost-effective in comparison with usual care for overweight and obese patients with knee osteoarthritis. Trial registration number ACTRN12615000490572 , registered 18th May 2015

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,Springer Nature B.V,BMC
• Subject: Absenteeism / Aged / Analysis / Arthritis / Biocompatibility / Biostatistics / Body mass index / Body size / Body weight / Body weight loss / Cost analysis / Cost-Benefit Analysis / Cost-effectiveness / Costs / Disease / Disease control / Drug prices / Drugs / Economic aspects / Economics / Environmental Health / Epidemiology / Female / Health aspects / Health behavior / Health care / Health care expenditures / Health care policy / health promotion and society / Health services / Health services utilization / Healthy Lifestyle / Humans / Intervention / Knee / Lifestyles / Male / Management / Medical referrals / Medicine / Medicine & Public Health / Middle Aged / Obesity / Obesity - prevention & control / Osteoarthritis / Osteoarthritis, Knee - epidemiology / Overweight / Pain / Patients / Program Evaluation / Public Health / Quality / Randomization / Registration / Research Article / Risk analysis / Risk factors / Telemedicine / Telephone / Telephone service / Telephones / Vaccine / Weight loss / Weight Reduction Programs - economics / Weight Reduction Programs - methods / Willingness to pay