Cost-Effectiveness of Nutrient Supplementation in Cancer Survivors

• Published in: Cancers Vol. 13; no. 24; p. 6276
• Main Authors: Shaver, Amy L, Tufuor, Theresa A, Nie, Jing, Ekimura, Shauna, Marshall, Keri, Mitmesser, Susan Hazels, Noyes, Katia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 14-12-2021; MDPI
• Subjects: Age; Body mass index; Cancer; Cancer therapies; Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; Cost analysis; Dietary supplements; Education; Estimates; Health care; Health care expenditures; Health care policy; Health insurance; Hospitalization; Insurance coverage; Interviews; Life expectancy; Malnutrition; Medicaid; Medicare; Nutrients; Nutrition; Patients; Population; Quality of life; Sensitivity analysis; Vitamins; United States > US; cost-effectiveness; nutrition; supplementation; nutritional deficiency; cancer; mineral; vitamin; QOL
• ISSN: 2072-6694; 2072-6694
• DOI: 10.3390/cancers13246276

Cancer patients are at risk for malnutrition; the aim of this study was to provide a cost-effectiveness analysis of dietary supplementation in cancer survivors. We estimated prevalence of supplementation, hospitalization rates, quality of life (QOL), cost of care and mortality among cancer survivors. We built a decision analytic model to simulate life-long costs of health care and supplementation and QOL among cancer survivors with and without supplementation. Cost of supplements was derived from national pharmacy databases including single- and multivitamin formularies. One-way and probabilistic sensitivity analysis were performed to evaluate the robustness of the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) to changes in supplementation costs and duration. The study cohort represented the national cancer survivor population (average age 61 years, 85% white, 52% male, and 94% insured). Hospitalization rates for supplement users and non-users were 12% and 21%, respectively. The cost of hospitalization was $4030. Supplementation was associated with an additional 0.48 QALYs (10.26 vs. 9.78) at the incremental cost of $2094 ($236,933 vs. $234,839) over the remaining lifetime of survivors (on average 13 years). Adequate nutrition provides a cost-effective strategy to achieving potentially optimum health. Further studies are needed to determine the effects of specific nutrient doses and supplementation on long-term outcomes per cancer type.