New cardiovascular disease findings from D.M. Eddy and co-authors described
2009 JUL 12 - (NewsRx.com) -- "Performance measures and guidelines encourage physicians to advise smokers to quit. The effect of these efforts on the morbidity, mortality, and cost of cardiovascular disease is not known," scientists writing in the American Journal of Medical Quality report. "This article analyzes the effects of offering smoking cessation advice in the US population. The Archimedes model is used to simulate several clinical trials in which basic advice and medication advice are offered and to calculate the rates of myocardial infarctions, congestive heart disease deaths, strokes, life years, quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), costs, and cost/QALY. The simulated population is a representative sample of the US population drawn from the Third National Health and Nutrition Survey conducted just before the performance measures and guidelines were introduced. The results show that offering basic advice and medication advice can prevent about 13% and 19% of myocardial infarctions and strokes, respectively," wrote D.M. Eddy and colleagues. The researchers concluded: "The 30-year cost/QALY is approximately $3000 less than the base-case assumptions and less than $10 000 under pessimistic assumptions. (Am J Med Qual 2009;24:241-249)." Eddy and colleagues published their study in American Journal of Medical Quality (Effect of Smoking Cessation Advice on Cardiovascular Disease. American Journal of Medical Quality, 2009;24(3):241-249). Additional information can be obtained by contacting D.M. Eddy, 201 Mission St., 29th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105, USA. The publisher of the American Journal of Medical Quality can be contacted at: Sage Publications Inc., 2455 Teller Rd., Thousand Oaks, CA 91320, USA. Keywords: United States, San Francisco, Cardiology, Cardiovascular Disease, Clinical Trial Research, Heart Attack, Heart Disease, Myocardial Infarction. This article was prepared by Heart Disease Weekly editors from staff and other reports. Copyright 2009, Heart Disease Weekly via NewsRx.com.
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