Talk to the Veterans Crisis Line now
U.S. flag
An official website of the United States government
Veterans Benefits and Health Care About VA Find a VA Location

VA Health Systems Research

Go to the VA ORD website
Go to the QUERI website

HSR Citation Abstract

Search | Search by Center | Search by Source | Keywords in Title

Cost-effectiveness of a primary care depression intervention.

Pyne JM, Rost KM, Zhang M, Williams DK, Smith J, Fortney J. Cost-effectiveness of a primary care depression intervention. Journal of general internal medicine. 2003 Jun 1; 18(6):432-41.

Dimensions for VA is a web-based tool available to VA staff that enables detailed searches of published research and research projects.

If you have VA-Intranet access, click here for more information vaww.hsrd.research.va.gov/dimensions/

VA staff not currently on the VA network can access Dimensions by registering for an account using their VA email address.    Search Dimensions for VA for this citation
* Don't have VA-internal network access or a VA email address? Try searching the free-to-the-public version of Dimensions


Abstract:

OBJECTIVE: To determine the incremental cost-effectiveness of a quality improvement depression intervention (enhanced care) in primary care settings relative to usual care. DESIGN: Following stratification, we randomized 12 primary care practices to enhanced or usual care conditions and followed patients for 12 months. SETTING: Primary care practices located in 10 states across the United States. PATIENTS/PARTICIPANTS: Two hundred eleven patients beginning a new treatment episode for major depression. INTERVENTIONS: Training the primary care team to assess, educate, and monitor depressed patients during the acute and continuation stages of their depression treatment episode over 1 year. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Cost-effectiveness was measured by calculating incremental (enhanced minus usual care) costs and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) derived from SF-36 data. The mean incremental cost-effectiveness ratio in the main analysis was US dollars 15463 per QALY. The mean incremental cost-effectiveness ratios for the sensitivity analyses ranged from US dollars 11341 (using geographic block variables to control for pre-intervention service utilization) to US dollars 19976 (increasing the cost estimates by 50%) per QALY. CONCLUSIONS: This quality improvement depression intervention was cost-effective relative to usual care compared to cost-effectiveness ratios for common primary care interventions and commonly cited cost-effectiveness ratio thresholds for intervention implementation.




Questions about the HSR website? Email the Web Team

Any health information on this website is strictly for informational purposes and is not intended as medical advice. It should not be used to diagnose or treat any condition.