Resource use and cost of annual health checks in primary care for people with intellectual disabilities.
M Panca, M Buszewicz, A Strydom and 3 others
PMID 30461105WHAT IT FOUND
Annual health checks for adults with intellectual disability cost £142.57 each, and the study estimated healthcare costs were 56% higher for people who had a check.
People without a check had increases in unplanned admissions and outpatient contacts after the start date.
Key findings
01The average cost of an annual health check was £142.57.
02The analysis estimated healthcare costs were 56% higher for people who had an annual health check.
03In the no-check group, mean unplanned admissions increased by 0.06, mean community healthcare contacts by 0.15, and mean outpatient contacts by 0.59 after the start date.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
Only 208 records were analysed, so the study may have missed real differences in costs or use. The no-check group had a mean follow-up period of 3.75 years and the check group had a mean period of 1.85 years, which can make resource counts harder to compare. Severity of intellectual disability was not clear for over 65% of records, so the researchers could not adjust for it. Secondary care use was incomplete because the database depends on letters sent to GP practices and only a limited number of practices are linked to hospital records. The study measured resource use and costs, not health outcomes, quality of life or mortality. The data came from 2008 to 2011 and may not reflect current practice. The annual health check is a bundle of assessments, so the study cannot show which part of the check mattered.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that annual health checks caused less unplanned care or saved money. The study was observational, the groups had different follow-up times, severity of intellectual disability was mostly not recorded, and the annual health check is a bundle of assessments so the contribution of any single part cannot be separated.