Tailored telephone counseling and physician-based and clinic-based interventions have been shown to be cost-effective in enhancing utilization of mammography among nonadherent women. The objective of this study was to evaluate the costs and benefits of a broad implementation of these interventions from a health payer perspective.
CAN*TROL computer modeling was em-ployed in the cost-effectiveness analysis of interventions in a 2000 Texas female population. The estimated effects of the various interventions and their related costs derived from the literature were applied to a hypothetical scenario of a broad implementation of these interventions.
Seven studies were identified from the literature, six of them employed tailored telephone counseling (TC), whereas two used comprehensive physician-based (PB) or clinic-based (CB) interventions. The estimated intervention cost per women was $43 for TC, $71 for PB, and $151 for CB. CAN*TROL model showed that after 15 years of implementation, TC, PB, and CB could reduce cancer mortality by 6.5, 2.2, and 10.7%, respectively. The cumulative net costs of interventions, mammography screening, and medical care costs were lower for TC (TC vs. PB vs. CB, 1.05 million vs. 1.06 million vs. 1.60 million). Nevertheless, CB resulted in more life-years saved (TC vs. PB vs. CB, 11,413 vs. 8515 vs. 14,559). The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio was more favorable for tailored telephone counseling interventions. One-way sensitivity analysis indicated that compliance rates and intervention costs had the most significant impact on the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio.
Tailored telephone counseling interventions may be the preferred first-line intervention for getting nonadherent women aged 50 to 79 years on schedule for mammography screening.