Cost-Effectiveness of the Self-Care Management System for Heart Failure

Background: We recently reported that the self-care management system for heart failure (HF) decreased re-hospitalization for HF. In the present study we estimate the cost-effectiveness of this system.

Methods and results: We retrospectively enrolled 569 consecutive patients who were admitted for HF treatment at Kitano Hospital. In the present analysis, we sought to compare cardiovascular healthcare costs and the incremental cost-effective ratio (ICER), expressed as the cost per quality-adjusted life-years (QALY) gained, between patients using the self-care management system (n=153) and those not using the system (n=153) after propensity-score matching. To calculate the QALY, we used the New York Heart Association class and the corresponding scores of quality of life in every 3 months. The healthcare costs of cardiovascular disease were ¥129,747,016 in the user group and ¥156,427,032 in the non-user group, where 24 and 43 patients were hospitalized, respectively. The cost of this new system was ¥50,000 in the user group. The total costs were ¥129,797,016 in the user group and ¥156,427,032 in the non-user group. By using the system, the QALY increased from 0.653 to 0.686. The ICER was below 0 and the system was interpreted as cost-effective.

Conclusions: Use of the self-care management system is likely to be a cost-effective treatment for HF with the increase in QALY and the decrease in healthcare costs.