Economic Evaluation of the Good Life Club Intervention for Diabetes Self-Management

Abstract

This paper reports results from an economic evaluation of the Good Life Club (GLC), a self-management intervention for type II diabetes. Based on intention to treat data at 18-month follow-up, 39% of GLC clients were well-managed compared to just 30% at baseline. This gives a risk difference of 0.09 (95%CI: 0.01, 0.16) and a relative risk of being well-managed equal to 1.28 (95%CI: 1.04, 1.58) for the GLC intervention as compared to usual care. Based on detailed description of the GLC intervention, client-level data as to service utilisation and published unit costs, the incremental cost per client of the GLC intervention as compared to usual care was calculated at $1,457 in the base case analysis. Combining estimates of incremental cost and treatment effect implies an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of just over $16,000 per additional responder (client with well-managed type II diabetes) in the base-case analysis. Additional cost savings are, however, expected to accrue in future years because well-managed diabetes is less likely than usual care to result in diabetes-related complications.