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Cost considerations in oral antibiotic therapy.
1Clinical Pharmacokinetics Laboratory, Millard Fillmore Hospital, Buffalo, NY 14209, USA.
Advances in Therapy
|June 7, 1995
Summary
The total cost of antibiotic treatment depends on acquisition expenses and indirect costs like treatment failure. Optimizing antibiotic therapy involves balancing drug costs with factors influencing patient outcomes and overall healthcare expenses.
Area of Science:
- Pharmacoeconomics
- Infectious Disease Management
Background:
- Antibiotic treatment costs encompass both direct (acquisition) and indirect (noncompliance, failure, adverse events) expenditures.
- The choice of antibiotic regimen significantly impacts total treatment cost, not just the per-dose price.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze the components of total antibiotic treatment cost.
- To evaluate how different antibiotic characteristics (acquisition cost, dosing frequency, duration, efficacy, safety) influence overall treatment expenses.
Main Methods:
- Cost-effectiveness analysis framework.
- Comparison of direct and indirect cost factors for various antibiotic classes.
Main Results:
- High per-dose cost, infrequent dosing, and short duration can lead to lower total costs than low-cost, high-frequency, long-duration regimens.
- Indirect costs associated with noncompliance, treatment failure, and adverse events can substantially increase overall expenses.
- Older antibiotics may have lower acquisition costs but higher indirect costs due to reduced efficacy and more side effects.
Conclusions:
- Broad-spectrum antibiotics with low acquisition costs, simple dosing, and favorable safety profiles may offer the best value for common infections.
- Careful consideration of both direct and indirect costs is crucial for optimizing antibiotic therapy selection.
- Dosing simplicity and patient compliance are key determinants of cost-effectiveness in antibiotic treatment.