This review was conducted by York Health Economics Consortium on behalf of the
British Lung Foundation and the British Thoracic Society. An extensive literature search was undertaken to identify published evidence for the burden of lung disease and the cost-effectiveness of policy and service interventions.
In terms of interventions, the main findings included:
· A meta-analysis found all education and environmental interventions in asthma assessed in the analysis to be cost saving;
· A systematic review found self-management methods in asthma to be cost saving or to have favourable cost effectiveness ratios;
· For COPD self-management, smoking cessation advice or campaigns, a pharmacy-led adherence improvement programme and telehealth were found to be highly cost effective (except for nurse-led self-management)
· The ‘Be Clear on Cancer’ lung cancer awareness campaign delivered by Public Health England had an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) between £13,500 and £18,000 per QALY gained;
· Vaccinations for pneumonia in older adults had reported ICERs in three studies in the range that would be considered cost effective in the UK
The report goes on to highlight areas where data are lacking.
An expert commenting on the report considers that “the historic lack of a national plan with sufficient investment has held uniform progress back”. She suggests that “one part of the solution is investment in some of the highly effective programmes outlined in this report. This would bring huge health and economic benefits for society and our health service. We also need to work together to plug the major data gaps that currently exist across respiratory disease. Good data informs better NHS services and policy – so fixing this is a major priority.”