Insurance, Information Technology, Economics of InterventionsEconomic Evaluation of a Primary Care Trial to Reduce Weight Gain in Overweight/Obese Children: The LEAP Trial
Section snippets
Methods
The LEAP randomized controlled trial was conducted during 2002–2003 in 29 family medical practices in Melbourne, Australia. Detailed methods and processes of the randomized controlled trial are reported elsewhere.21 Briefly, in early 2002, 34 GPs were recruited into LEAP and took part in a series of three 2.5-hour educational sessions at local venues; a range of adult learning styles were used. All 34 GPs attended at least 2 of the 3 education sessions and 75% attended all 3, with 85% reporting
Results
Audit data were available for all 82 intervention and 81 control children, and parent questionnaire data were available for 65 (79%) intervention and 72 (89%) control children at 9 months and for 64 (78%) intervention and 70 (86%) control children at 15 months.
Table 1 summarizes LEAP program delivery costs. The total cost of providing the LEAP intervention was AU $57 812. This equates to AU $1994 per participating practice, AU $1700 per GP trained, or AU $705 per intervention child (Table 2).
Discussion
From a combined health sector and family perspective, the cost of LEAP per intervention child was AU $4094 greater than for children of control families, largely as a result of increased family resources devoted to child physical activity. Total costs borne by the health sector were AU $873 per intervention family and AU $64 per control. This investment did not improve the primary outcome measure of child BMI in the intervention group relative to controls at 9 or 15 months, although there was
Acknowledgments
Funding was provided by the Public Health Postgraduate National Health and Medical Research Council Scholarship (216745) to Z.M. and by National Health and Medical Research Council Career Development Award (284556) to M.W. The LEAP Trial was funded by a grant from the Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council for Priority Driven Research (AHMAC PDR 2001/15; Melissa Wake, Elizabeth Waters, Zoë McCallum). We thank the participating general practitioners and families. We would also like to
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