Canadian Centre for Agri-Food Research in Health and Medicine, Albrechtsen Research Centre, St. Boniface Hospital, Winnipeg, MB R2H 2A6, Canada.
Department of Economics, Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, MB R3B 2E9, Canada.
Nutrients. 2024 Aug 10;16(16):2638. doi: 10.3390/nu16162638.
Hypertension contributes to the increase in health care spending in Canada through two primary mechanisms. First, it directly increases costs, as individuals with hypertension require medical care to manage the condition. Second, it indirectly raises expenses by serving as a risk factor for numerous chronic diseases, leading to increased health care utilization among those affected. Therefore, reducing hypertension prevalence could alleviate its resulting strain on the Canadian health care system. Clinical trials have demonstrated that daily flaxseed consumption effectively lowers both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. This study employs a four-step cost-of-illness analysis to estimate the potential health care cost-savings from a flaxseed-based treatment for hypertension. The analysis begins by assessing the proportion of individuals with hypertension likely to adopt the flaxseed regimen. It then evaluates the impact of flaxseed consumption on systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Next, data from the Canadian Health Measures Survey, Cycles 5 and 6, are used to estimate the prevalence of hypertension and the expected reduction in prevalence due to the flaxseed treatment. Finally, the potential reduction in health care spending is calculated. To incorporate uncertainty, partial sensitivity analysis and Monte Carlo simulations were utilized, varying the intake success rate and other model parameters, respectively. The most conservative estimate suggests a potential health care cost-savings of CAD 96,284,344 in Canada for the year 2020.
高血压通过两种主要机制导致加拿大医疗保健支出增加。首先，它直接增加了成本，因为高血压患者需要医疗护理来控制病情。其次，它作为许多慢性疾病的风险因素，间接地增加了受影响者的医疗保健利用，从而导致费用增加。因此，降低高血压的患病率可以减轻其对加拿大医疗保健系统的负担。临床试验表明，每天食用亚麻籽可有效降低收缩压和舒张压。本研究采用四步疾病成本分析来估计基于亚麻籽的高血压治疗方案的潜在医疗保健成本节约。分析首先评估可能采用亚麻籽疗法的高血压患者比例。然后评估亚麻籽消费对收缩压和舒张压的影响。接下来，使用加拿大健康测量调查第五和第六周期的数据来估计高血压的患病率以及由于亚麻籽治疗而预期的患病率降低。最后，计算医疗保健支出的潜在减少。为了纳入不确定性，进行了部分敏感性分析和蒙特卡罗模拟，分别改变了摄入成功率和其他模型参数。最保守的估计表明，2020 年加拿大的潜在医疗保健成本节约为 96,284,344 加元。
