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Cataract Surgery in Low-Income Countries: A Good Deal!
- Source :
- Healthcare (2227-9032); Dec2022, Vol. 10 Issue 12, p2580, 15p
- Publication Year :
- 2022
-
Abstract
- Cataract is a major cause of blindness worldwide. In particular, in low-income countries, the burden of disease as well as its direct and indirect economic cost are a major challenge for the population and economy. In many cases, it would be possible to prevent or cure blindness with a comparably simple cataract surgery, but many countries lack the resources to strengthen healthcare systems and implement broad cataract surgery programs reaching, in particular, the rural poor. In this paper, we analyse whether such an intervention could be cost-effective or even cost-saving for the respective health systems. We calculate the net value of the lifelong costs of cataract with and without surgery. This calculation includes direct costs (e.g., treatment, glasses, surgery) as well as indirect cost of the caregiver and the patient. We total all costs from the year of onset of cataract until death and discount the respective values to the year of onset. We define the surgery as cost-saving if the net-value of costs with surgery is lower than without surgery. If the cost per quality adjusted life year is lower than one gross national product per capita, we define the intervention as highly cost-effective. We find that the cost-effectiveness of cataract surgery depends on the age of onset of the disease and the age of surgery. If the surgery is performed with the beginning of severe impairment, even surgery of a 78-year-old patient is still cost-saving. Almost all possible constellations are highly cost-effective, only for the very old it is questionable whether the surgery should be performed. The simulations show that cataract surgery is one of the most cost-effective interventions. However, millions of people in low-income countries still have no chance to prevent or cure blindness due to limited resources. The findings of this paper clearly call for a stronger effort to reach poor and rural populations with this cost-effective service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- TREATMENT of cataracts
CATARACT
SERVICES for caregivers
MIDDLE-income countries
EYEGLASSES
AGE distribution
MEDICAL care costs
COST control
CATARACT surgery
COST analysis
QUALITY of life
LOW-income countries
COST effectiveness
AGE factors in disease
ECONOMIC aspects of diseases
QUALITY-adjusted life years
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 22279032
- Volume :
- 10
- Issue :
- 12
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Healthcare (2227-9032)
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 160987777
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare10122580