ISPOR Article Highlights Substantial Yet Forgotten Impact of Healthcare on Patient Caregivers

An article published in the May/June issue of ISPOR’s Value & Outcomes Spotlight highlights the burden of disease on patient carers, an often-forgotten aspect of patient care. The authors note that some diseases, including dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, are associated with substantial psychological and physical burdens for carers. Caregivers also face increased mortality, anxiety, and depression. The authors call on high-quality evidence to be incorporated into healthcare decision-making following a comprehensive analysis of 422 reports where only 16 discussed quality-of-life data for carers.

“For conditions with a high degree of carer burden, interventions that improve patient quality of life reduce the need for carer time and improve carer quality of life. Models with this information usually have lower ICERs, favoring the incorporation of essential technologies. Carers’ quality of life brings a small part of societal economic impact, most of the time forgotten by decision makers.” Read more here.

(Source: Sorayza Azmi et al., ISPOR, 5/2021)