Development of an Instrument to Collect Health Care Resource use Data in the Context of Rehabilitation

Abstract

Purpose: The objective of this paper is to describe the development of an instrument to collect health resource utilization data in rehabilitation research and to discuss lessons learned.

Materials and Methods: The questionnaire was developed to collect data about health resource use aiming at the alongside economic evaluations of 5 rehabilitation studies. Considering the health condition of study patients, the specific questions of associated studies and the methodological standards proposed by the “Working Group Methods in Health Economic Evaluation” (MEA), it was decided which health resource use components should be part of the questionnaire and which recall period would be adequate. Health resource use information was assessed in order to calculate direct medical, direct non medical and indirect costs.

Results: The standardized self-administered retrospective health resource use assessment questionnaire was answered by a total of 1 042 subjects with one of the following indications: osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, back pain, cancer, fibromyalgia or brain/cranial traumata.

Discussion: Although the questionnaire was adapted for each rehabilitation study, it could be learned that the development of a standardized general brief questionnaire to collect health resource use with fixed cost categories is of fundamental importance in order to facilitate comparability across indications and studies in rehabilitation.

Conclusions: The instrument to collect health resource utilization provided enough information to calculate direct medical, direct non medical and indirect costs. The core version omitting disease-specific aspects could serve as a starting point towards a standardized and validated, general, self-administered questionnaire suitable for alongside comparative economic evaluations in rehabilitation.

Zusammenfassung

Fragestellung: Ziel der Publikation ist die Beschreibung der Entwicklung eines Instrumentes zur Erhebung des Ressourcenverbrauchs in der Rehabilitation sowie die Diskussion unserer Erfahrungen und Erkenntnisse.

Material und Methode: Ziel der Entwicklung des Instruments war die Erhebung des Ressourcenverbrauchs mehrerer Rehabilitationsstudien, wofür eine begleitende gesundheitsökonomische Evaluation vorgesehen war. Die Entscheidung, welche Kostenkomponenten erfasst werden sollen und welcher Detaillierungsgrad bevorzugt werden sollte, wurde anhand der Indikation, der spezifischen Fragestellung der Studie sowie der methodologischen Empfehlungen der „Arbeitsgruppe Methoden der gesundheitsökonomischen Evaluation” (MEA) entschieden. Der Ressourcenverbrauch wurde mit dem Ziel erhoben, direkte medizinische und nicht medizinische sowie indirekte Kosten berechnen zu können.

Ergebnisse: Das Instrument zur Erfassung des Ressourcenverbrauchs wurde von insgesamt 1 042 Patienten, die entweder an Osteoarthritis, Osteoporose, Rückenschmerzen, Krebs, Fibromyalgia oder Schädel-Hirntrauma erkrankt waren, ausgefüllt.

Diskussion: Obwohl das Instrument für jede Studie angepasst wurde, sind wir der Meinung, dass die Entwicklung eines kurzen, standardisierten und generellen Instruments zur Erfassung des Ressourcenverbrauchs in der Rehabilitation von großer Bedeutung bezüglich der Vergleichbarkeit zwischen Studien und Indikationen sein könnte.

Schlussfolgerung: Ausreichende Daten zur Berechnung von direkten und indirekten Kosten konnten mit dem Instrument zur Erfassung des Ressourcenverbrauchs gewonnen werden.

Key words

health resource use - data collection - cost measure - rehabilitation - economic evaluation

Schlüsselwörter

Ressourcenverbrauch - Fragebogenentwicklung - Kostenerhebung - Rehabilitation -

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Correspondence