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Cost-effectiveness of interventions for increasing the possession of functioning smoke alarms in households with pre-school children: a modelling study

Saramago, Pedro; Cooper, Nicola J.; Sutton, Alex J.; Hayes, Mike; Dunn, Ken; Manca, Andrea; Kendrick, Denise

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Authors

Pedro Saramago

Nicola J. Cooper

Alex J. Sutton

Mike Hayes

Ken Dunn

Andrea Manca

DENISE KENDRICK DENISE.KENDRICK@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
Professor of Primary Care Research



Abstract

Background

The UK has one of the highest rates for deaths from fire and flames in children aged 0-14 years compared to other high income countries. Evidence shows that smoke alarms can reduce the risk of fire-related injury but little exists on their cost-effectiveness. We aimed to compare the cost effectiveness of different interventions for the uptake of 'functioning' smoke alarms and consequently for the prevention of fire-related injuries in children in the UK.

Methods

We carried out a decision model-based probabilistic cost-effectiveness analysis. We used a hypothetical population of newborns and evaluated the impact of living in a household with or without a functioning smoke alarm during the first 5 years of their life on overall lifetime costs and quality of life from a public health perspective. We compared seven interventions, ranging from usual care to more complex interventions comprising of education, free/low cost equipment giveaway, equipment fitting and/or home safety inspection.

Results

Education and free/low cost equipment was the most cost-effective intervention with an estimated incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of [pound sign]34,200 per QALY gained compared to usual care. This was reduced to approximately £4,500 per QALY gained when 1.8 children under the age of 5 were assumed per household.


Conclusions


Assessing cost-effectiveness, as well as effectiveness, is important in a public sector system operating under a fixed budget restraint. As highlighted in this study, the more effective interventions (in this case the more complex interventions) may not necessarily be the ones considered the most cost-effective.

Citation

Saramago, P., Cooper, N. J., Sutton, A. J., Hayes, M., Dunn, K., Manca, A., & Kendrick, D. (2014). Cost-effectiveness of interventions for increasing the possession of functioning smoke alarms in households with pre-school children: a modelling study. BMC Public Health, 14, Article 459. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-14-459

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Apr 24, 2014
Publication Date May 16, 2014
Deposit Date May 26, 2016
Publicly Available Date May 26, 2016
Journal BMC Public Health
Electronic ISSN 1471-2458
Publisher Springer Verlag
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 14
Article Number 459
DOI https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-14-459
Keywords Cost-effectiveness analysis; Smoke alarms; Decision model; Fire-related injuries; Child home injuries
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/728524
Publisher URL http://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2458-14-459
Related Public URLs https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0
Contract Date May 26, 2016

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