Cost Effective Treatment Options For Acute Otitis Media

Main Category: Ear, Nose and Throat
Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 01 Feb 2007 - 5:00 PDT

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Acute otitis media (AOM), or inflammation of the middle ear, is responsible for 13.6 million pediatric office visits annually in the United States at an estimated annual cost of $2.98 billion in 1995.

Using a cost-effectiveness analysis to compare four treatment regimens that include observational and antibiotic treatments, researchers find that treatment for AOM is a trade-off between relieving symptoms and cost. The least costly option was delaying prescription, an approach which involves waiting for 72 hours to see if symptoms improve before instituting antibiotics, while the most effective course of treatment, coming at a greater cost, was seven to 10 days of amoxicillin. The analysis finds that the additional cost per patient for a course of amoxicillin is $22.90, which would result in an additional $311 million in annual health care expenditures if each of the 13.6 million cases of AOM were treated with this regimen. The author suggests that these findings highlight the quantifiable costs and benefits that should be considered when deciding about treatment for AOM, supporting recent guidelines of the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American Academy of Pediatrics that include an observational option for lower-risk children with AOM.

Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Treatment Options for Acute Otitis Media Andrew S. Coco, M.D., M.S.

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Contact: Kristin Robinson
American Academy of Family Physicians

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