Iðjuþjálfinn - 2020, Page 55

Iðjuþjálfinn 1/202055
Occupational
Therapy and
Health Economics
A SUMMARY
For every society it is important to know if the health care interven-
tions provided are effective and efficient. Resources are limited,
and in order to maintain high standards, the resources available
need to be allocated to the interventions that give the best results.
Thus, the need for health economic data that underpins deci-
sion-making processes will increase and become more important
for policy makers in different parts of our welfare systems.
In general, the effects of occupational therapy interventions are
well-known, but knowledge about economical utility of interven-
tions is generally lacking. Even though some research is available it
can be difficult to relate the results to national circumstances and
interpret them in organisational contexts.
The aim of this report is to promote awareness and basic under-
standing of Health Economics and increase knowledge about eco-
nomical utility in occupational therapy interventions.

We hope that the report will provide inspiration and contribute to
discussions, not least among occupational therapists, on the eco-
nomical utility of occupational therapy in practice as well as for re-
search.
THE CONTENT
Chapter 1
Economic evaluation and when to use it
This chapter is a short introduction to the main aspects of eco-
nomic evaluations i.e. to identify, measure, evaluate and com-
pare the costs and effects of the interventions in focus. The two
main types of economic evaluations; trial-based and model-
based are explained and exemplified. The main part of the
chapter focuses on trial-based economic evaluations since
effective ness trials are often used as a vehicle for economic
evaluations.
Chapter 2
Return to work
The chapter is a systematic review aiming at examining scientif-
ic evidence for cost-effectiveness of return to work (RTW) inter-
ventions that occupational therapists may use, targeting
people with mental health disorders. The results show that evi-
dence-based SE IPS intervention is cost effective in several wel-
fare systems, among them the Nordic countries. A study where
work- focused OT intervention was added to standard treat-
ment (as usual), showed the intervention to be more cost effec-
tive than the comparator, but was considered to have low
methodological quality.
Chapter 3
Older people, and health
This chapter is a scoping review of health economic perspec-
tives in occupational therapy interventions for older people.
The result showed that occupational therapy interventions
have potential to positively affect health outcomes such as per-
formance of daily activities, involvement in valued life situa-
tions and supporting older people to remain independent.
Given the broad spread of interventions, the actual content of
interventions varied substantially from a one-session interven-
tion to those including a large number of sessions over a period
of up to nine months. While each intervention can be discussed
separately in relation to content and outcome, an overall quest-
ion is how extensive an intervention needs to be in order to give
sufficient effects.
IN CONCLUSION
In conclusion, this report showed that occupational therapy inte-
ventions do have economic implications since, disability, depend-
ency, and work absen- ce impact societal costs. It is, therefore, im-
portant that the profession continues to engage in economic
evaluations and use results thereof. For future economic evalua-
tion in occupational therapy, researchers need to pay considerable
attention to: study design, collecting all relevant data on both costs
and effects, following costs and effects over a sufficient period of
time and ensuring that studies are statistically powered
to detect differences in both costs and effects.
This report, Occupational Therapy and Health Economics, is a
result of a project on health economics involving occupational
therapy organisations in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway,
and Sweden. The project group consisted of researchers from
Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
EKKI GLEYMA. . .
AÐ FÁ TILBOÐ HJÁ SÖLUMÖNNUM OKKAR
Í SÍMA 563 6000 EÐA LITROF@LITROF.IS
EF ÞÚ GERIR KRÖFUR UM GÆÐA PRENTVERK,
HRAÐA OG ÖRUGGA ÞJÓNUSTU
. . .Á GÓÐU VERÐI
U M H V E R F I S V O T T U Ð P R E N T S M I Ð J A
VAT N A G A R ÐA R 1 4 • S Í M I 5 6 3 6 0 0 0 • L I T R O F. I S