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Community falls prevention for people who call an emergency ambulance after a fall: an economic evaluation alongside
Tracey H Sach1, Philippa A Logan, Carol A C Coupland
1Health Economics Group, Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK. t.sach@uea.ac.uk
Objective:
we estimated the cost-effectiveness of a community falls prevention service compared with usual care from a National Health Service and personal social services perspective over the 12 month trial period.
Design:
a cost-effectiveness and cost utility analysis alongside a randomised controlled trial
Setting:
community.
Participants:
people over 60 years of age living at home or in residential care who had fallen and called an emergency ambulance but were not taken to hospital.
Interventions:
referral to community fall prevention services or usual health and social care.
Measurements:
incremental cost per fall prevented and incremental cost per Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs)
Results:
a total of 157 participants (82 interventions and 75 controls) were used to perform the economic evaluation. The mean difference in NHS and personal social service costs between the groups was £-1,551 per patient over 1 year (95% CI: £-5,932 to £2,829) comparing the intervention and control groups. The intervention patients experienced on average 5.34 fewer falls over 12 months (95% CI: -7.06 to -3.62). The mean difference in QALYs was 0.070 (95% CI: -0.010 to 0.150) in favour of the intervention group.
Conclusion:
the community falls prevention service was estimated to be cost-effective in this high-risk group. Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN67535605. (controlled-trials.com).
