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Aim: Medication non‐adherence influences outcomes of therapies for chronic diseases. Allopurinol is a cornerstone therapy for patients with gout; however, non‐adherence to allopurinol is prevalent in Singapore and limits its effectiveness. Between 2008‐2010, an adherence‐enhancing program was implemented at the rheumatology division of a public tertiary hospital. The cost‐effectiveness of this program has not been fully evaluated. With healthcare resources being finite, the value of investing in adherence‐enhancing interventions should be ascertained. This study aims to evaluate the cost‐effectiveness of this adherence‐enhancing program to inform optimal resource allocation toward better gout management. Method: Adopting a real‐world data approach, we utilized patient clinical and financial records generated in their course of routine care. Intervention and control groups were identified in a standing database and matched on nine risk factors through propensity score matching. Cost and effect data were followed through 1‐2 years. A decision tree was developed in TreeAge using a societal perspective. Deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were performed to assess parameter uncertainty. Results: At an assumed willingness‐to‐pay threshold of $50 000 USD ($70 000 SGD) per quality‐adjusted life year (QALY), the intervention had an 85% probability of being cost‐effective compared to routine care. The incremental cost‐effectiveness ratio was $12 866 USD per QALY for the base case and ranged from $4 139 to $21 593 USD per QALY in sensitivity analyses. Conclusion: The intervention is cost‐effective in the short‐term, although its long‐term cost‐effectiveness remains to be evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The control of confounding is an area of extensive epidemiological research, especially in the field of causal inference for observational studies. Matched cohort and case-control study designs are commonly implemented to control for confounding effects without specifying the functional form of the relationship between the outcome and confounders. This paper extends the commonly used regression models in matched designs for binary and survival outcomes (i.e. conditional logistic and stratified Cox proportional hazards) to studies of continuous outcomes through a novel interpretation and application of logit-based regression models from the econometrics and marketing research literature. We compare the performance of the maximum likelihood estimators using simulated data and propose a heuristic argument for obtaining the residuals for model diagnostics. We illustrate our proposed approach with two real data applications. Our simulation studies demonstrate that our stratification approach is robust to model misspecification and that the distribution of the estimated residuals provides a useful diagnostic when the strata are of moderate size. In our applications to real data, we demonstrate that parity and menopausal status are associated with percent mammographic density, and that the mean level and variability of inpatient blood glucose readings vary between medical and surgical wards within a national tertiary hospital. Our work highlights how the same class of regression models, available in most statistical software, can be used to adjust for confounding in the study of binary, time-to-event and continuous outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Breast cancer is the top cancer by incidence and mortality in Singaporean women. Mammography is by far its best screening tool, but current recommended age and interval may not yield the most benefit. Recent studies have demonstrated the potential of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to improve discriminatory accuracy of breast cancer risk assessment models. This study was conducted to understand Singaporean women's views towards breast cancer screening and SNPs gene testing to guide personalised screening strategies.Methods: Focus group discussions were conducted among English-speaking women (n = 27) between 40 to 65 years old, both current and lapsed mammogram users. Women were divided into four groups based on age and mammogram usage. Discussions about breast cancer and screening experience, as well as perception and attitude towards SNPs gene testing were conducted by an experienced moderator. Women were also asked for factors that will influence their uptake of the test. Transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis to captured similarities and differences in views expressed.Results: Barriers to repeat mammogram attendance include laziness to make appointment and painful and uncomfortable screening process. However, the underlying reason may be low perceived susceptibility to breast cancer. Facilitators to repeat mammogram attendance include ease of making appointment and timely reminders. Women were generally receptive towards SNPs gene testing, but required information on accuracy, cost, invasiveness, and side effects before they decide whether to go for it. Other factors include waiting time for results and frequency interval. On average, women gave a rating of 7.5 (range 5 to 10) when asked how likely they will go for the test.Conclusion: Addressing concerns such as pain and discomfort during mammogram, providing timely reminders and debunking breast cancer myths can help to improve screening uptake. Women demonstrated a spectrum of responses towards a novel test like SNPs gene testing, but need more information to make an informed decision. Future public health education on predictive genetic testing should adequately address both benefits and risks. Findings from this study is used to inform a discrete choice experiment to empirically quantify women preferences and willingness-to-pay for SNPs gene testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Oral anticoagulation with warfarin is the cornerstone therapy in atrial fibrillation (AF) for stroke prevention. Multi-disciplinary anticoagulation management services have been shown to be cost-effective in the United States, Hong Kong and Thailand, but the findings are not readily generalizable to Singapore's healthcare system. Objective This study aimed to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of pharmacist-managed anticoagulation clinic (ACC) compared with usual care (UC) for the management of older adults with AF receiving oral anticoagulation with warfarin. Setting Pharmacist-managed ACC in an academic medical centre. Method A Markov model with 3-month cycle length and 30-year time horizon compared costs and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) of ACC and UC from the patient's and healthcare provider's perspectives. Four pathways based on time in therapeutic range (TTR) were: ACC TTR < 70 %, ACC TTR ≥ 70 %, UC TTR < 70 % and UC TTR ≥ 70 %. A hypothetical cohort of 70-year-old Singaporean AF patients receiving warfarin was utilised. Local data from national disease registries, patient surveys and hospital databases were used. When local data was not available, published studies on Asian populations were utilized when available. One-way sensitivity analyses and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were performed to account for uncertainties. Costs and QALYs were discounted annually by 3 %. Main outcome measure Costs and QALYs of ACC and UC. Results Pharmacist-managed ACC was found to dominate UC in all comparisons. It improved effectiveness by 0.19 and 0.13 QALYs at TTR < 70 % and TTR ≥ 70 % respectively compared with UC. From the patient's perspective, ACC reduced costs by SG$1222.67 (€1110.24) for TTR < 70 % and SG$1008.16 (€915.46) for TTR ≥ 70 %. Similar trends were observed from the healthcare provider's perspective, with ACC reducing costs by SG$1444.79 (€1311.94) for TTR < 70 % and SG$1269.17 (€1152.46) for TTR ≥ 70 % compared with UC. The results were robust to variations of the parameters over their plausible ranges in one-way sensitivity analyses. Probabilistic sensitivity analyses demonstrated that ACC was cost-effective more than 79 % of the time from both perspectives at a willingness-to-pay threshold of SG$69,050 (€62,701) per QALY. Conclusion Pharmacist-managed ACC is more effective and less costly compared with UC regardless of the quality of anticoagulation therapy. The findings support the current body of evidence demonstrating the cost-effectiveness of ACC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) have poor health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The association of CKD-related complications such as anemia and mineral and bone disorders (MBD) with HRQoL in pre-dialysis patients is not well-studied. As such, this study aimed to determine the association of anemia and MBD with HRQoL in pre-dialysis patients.Methods: This was a cross-sectional study involving 311 adult pre-dialysis patients with stage 3-5 CKD from an acute-care hospital in Singapore. Patients' HRQoL were assessed using Kidney Disease Quality of Life Short Form (KDQOL-SF™) and EuroQol 5 Dimensions-3 levels (EQ5D-3L). HRQoL between patients with and without anemia or MBD were compared by separate hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses using various HRQoL scales as dependent variables, adjusted for sociodemographic, clinical and psychosocial variables.Results: After adjusting for MBD, anemia was associated with lower HRQoL scores on work status (WS), physical functioning (PF) and role physical [β (SE): -10.9 (4.18), p = 0.010; -3.0 (1.28), p = 0.018; and -4.2 (1.40), p = 0.003, respectively]. However, significance was lost after adjustments for sociodemographic variables. Patients with MBD had poorer HRQoL with respect to burden of kidney disease, WS, PF and general health [(β (SE): -7.9 (3.88), p = 0.042; -9.5 (3.99), p = 0.018; -3.0 (1.22) p = 0.014; -3.6 (1.48), p = 0.015, respectively]. Although these remained significant after adjusting for sociodemographic variables, significance was lost after adjusting for clinical variables, particularly pill burden. This is of clinical importance due to the high pill burden of CKD patients, especially from medications for the management of multiple comorbidities such as cardiovascular and mineral and bone diseases.Conclusions: Neither anemia nor MBD was associated with HRQoL in our pre-dialysis patients. Instead, higher total daily pill burden was associated with worse HRQoL. Medication reconciliation should therefore be routinely performed by clinicians and pharmacists to reduce total daily pill burden where possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Regular and timely monitoring of blood glucose (BG) levels in hospitalized patients with diabetes mellitus is crucial to optimizing inpatient glycaemic control. However, methods to quantify timeliness as a measurement of quality of care are lacking. We propose an analytical approach that utilizes BG measurements from electronic records to assess adherence to an inpatient BG monitoring protocol in hospital wards.Methods: We applied our proposed analytical approach to electronic records obtained from 24 non-critical care wards in November and December 2013 from a tertiary care hospital in Singapore. We applied distributional analytics to evaluate daily adherence to BG monitoring timings. A one-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov (1S-KS) test was performed to test daily BG timings against non-adherence represented by the uniform distribution. This test was performed among wards with high power, determined through simulation. The 1S-KS test was coupled with visualization via the cumulative distribution function (cdf) plot and a two-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov (2S-KS) test, enabling comparison of the BG timing distributions between two consecutive days. We also applied mixture modelling to identify the key features in daily BG timings.Results: We found that 11 out of the 24 wards had high power. Among these wards, 1S-KS test with cdf plots indicated adherence to BG monitoring protocols. Integrating both 1S-KS and 2S-KS information within a moving window consisting of two consecutive days did not suggest frequent potential change from or towards non-adherence to protocol. From mixture modelling among wards with high power, we consistently identified four components with high concentration of BG measurements taken before mealtimes and around bedtime. This agnostic analysis provided additional evidence that the wards were adherent to BG monitoring protocols.Conclusions: We demonstrated the utility of our proposed analytical approach as a monitoring tool. It provided information to healthcare providers regarding the timeliness of daily BG measurements. From the real data application, there were empirical evidences suggesting adherence of BG timings to protocol among wards with adequate power for assessing timeliness. Our approach is extendable to other areas of healthcare where timeliness of patient care processes is important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]