Economic evaluation of healthcare interventions for people with dementia – how can we take a broader societal perspective?

Economic evaluation of healthcare interventions follows the guideline produced by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). NICE recommends a Cost Utility Analysis (CUA) approach where outcomes are health effects on patients (and carers where relevant) expressed in terms of Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYs), and costs are restricted to only those falling on the budgets of the NHS and Social Services. An individual-level simulation is developed to estimate all costs and consequences of several healthcare interventions for dementia. Then, two different decision making approaches are applied to determine which option has the best value for money. These approaches account for a broad range of costs and consequences for both the NHS, people with dementia, and informal caregivers. The research will contribute to the development of a new decision making framework at national level to approve health care interventions for people with dementia.