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Vitamins to Save Eyes
Could Save Money, Too
Excerpt
By Martha Kerr, Reuter's Health
ORLANDO (Reuters Health)
- Giving high-dose vitamin therapy to
people suffering from the leading cause of age-related blindness
could save money, as well as their sight, a Canadian researcher
told attendees of the annual meeting of the American Academy of
Ophthalmology here.
The condition, age-related macular
degeneration (AMD), occurs when light-sensitive cells in the macula,
the tissue at the center of the retina, break down. This can make
it difficult to read, drive or perform other activities that require
sharp vision.
Ninety percent of AMD patients have
so-called "dry" AMD. While there is currently no cure for dry
AMD, a study published by the National Eye Institute last year
showed that taking a combination of zinc, vitamins C and E and
beta-carotene, may slow disease progression.
Dr. Sanjay Sharma of Queens University
in Kingston, Ontario, told Reuters Health that by his calculations,
the vitamin therapy could save the US healthcare system $1.56
billion over the next 10 years if taken by patients with moderately
advanced AMD.
Sharma and colleagues used a number
of decision analyzes and cost-utility models to determine the
cost of high-dose vitamin therapy for this patient population,
as well as information from the Age-Related Eye Disease study.
"We tried to look at it from the point
of view of the insurers," Sharma said, in order to determine how
expensive the treatment approach would be and whether or not insurers
could be encouraged to reimburse patients for the cost.
High-dose vitamin therapy for AMD
"was thought to be an expensive approach." But the investigators
found that it saves money "because of the reduced demand for very
expensive services at the other end (of the disease process)."
By slowing disease progression, "you
dramatically improve quality of life over a 5-year period," Sharma
added.
"It makes sense for insurers to pick
up the tab," Sharma asserted. Insurers "could expect a 5-year
saving of $130 per patient by recommending high-dose vitamin
therapy for their beneficiaries with advanced dry AMD," the Canadian
team reported.
Reference
Source 89
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