Cost-Utility Analyses of Interventions to Prevent and Treat Obesity

In the developed world, obesity is a serious risk factor for many chronic diseases. Besides its morbidity and mortality burden, Obesity generates a huge cost burden on countries health services. This study aims to assist policymakers in their efforts to prioritize interventions to prevent and treat obesity by calculating cost-utility ratios of the treatment modes of dietary counseling, pharmaceutical interventions and bariatric surgery.Generally, the majority of interventions were found to be either cost-saving or very cost-effective in an Israeli setting. Differences in cost-effectiveness exist within each treatment modality, but the data are not robust enough to facilitate within-modality prioritization at this point. Readers can use the methodologies in this paper to generate cost-utility ratios for their own country-specific interventions.

Autorentext

Born in UK. Attained DrPH from UNC. Worked for WHO in Geneva. Currently Director of Medical Technology Assessment Sector of the Israeli Ministry of Health. Specialises in evaluating l health interventions using Cost-Utility Analysis. Many recommendations (from his 90+ publications) have been implemented and resulted in the saving of many lives.