Community falls prevention for people who call an emergency ambulance after a fall: an economic evaluation alongside a randomised controlled trial

摘要

>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)