A comparison of two sources of primary and social care resource use data in a care home setting

Sach, Tracey, Desborough, James A, Houghton, Julie and Holland, Richard (2018) A comparison of two sources of primary and social care resource use data in a care home setting. In, Curtis, L and Burns, A (eds.) Unit Costs of Health and Social Care 2018. (Unit Costs of Health and Social Care) University of Kent, pp. 8-18. (doi:10.22024/UniKent/01.02.70995​).

Abstract

Economic evaluations are only as reliable as the data and methods upon which they are based. For both costs and outcomes there are multiple methods available and choice of approach has been demonstrated to impact on the conclusions reached for some evaluations (Drummond et al., 2015). In undertaking a cost analysis there are three broad steps: identification, measurement and valuation. At the identification stage the important resources (large cost drivers) that are likely to differ between the treatment groups are identified, though methods for this are not always evident in published economic evaluations (Thorn et al., 2013, p.159). There are also various methods for collecting resource use information, dependent on the context of the research and health sector being studied. In the UK context, the most likely sources available could include medical records, care institution records, or direct reporting (e.g. questionnaires). It is often assumed that information derived from medical notes will be more accurate than self-report which can suffer from recall bias and missing data, however, evidence suggests this is not universally true for all types of health care resources (Noble et al., 2012; Byford et al., 2007).

Comparatively little research has been undertaken looking at methods of resource use measurement (Thorn et al., 2013) and as such, there remains a lack of consensus about which data source(s) should be used in economic analyses and in what circumstances a particular data source might be most appropriate. If source of data leads to different estimates of resource use and costs, then it is important to begin to understand the potential implications of choice of data source on the results and conclusions reached particularly where this may change resource allocation decisions.

The objective of this study was to assess which resource items might be important to collect and to see if there are any differences in primary care and social care resource use reporting comparing two sources (General Practice (GP) records versus care home records) of this data in the care home setting.

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Contributors

Author: Tracey Sach

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