Health Outcomes

Health Outcome List:

• Not available

Environmental Agents

List of Environmental Agents:

• Chlorinated compounds (polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs))

Source of Environmental Agents:

• Occupational exposure via a capacitor and transformer recycling company

Economic Evaluation / Methods and Source

Type:

• Cost analysis (CA)

Cost Measures:

• Quality adjusted life years (QALYs)
• health-related quality of life (HRQL)

Potential Cost Measures:

• Not available

Benefits Measures:

• Not available

Potential Benefits Measures:

• Not available

Location:

• Germany

Models Used:

• Linear calculation model to calculate Quality-Adjusted Life Year (QALY) using Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQL) and Remaining Life Expectancy (RLE)
• Complex Number Model as alternate method to calculate QALYs
• Hierarchical linear regression models with control variables to test whether PCB exposure is associated with HRQL and QALYs

Models References:

• References cited in publication — linear model (Richardson and Manca, 2004); Complex Number Model (Prieto and Sacristan, 2004; Schnell et al., 2008)

Methods Used:

• The authors assessed whether PCB exposure can be associated with the quality adjusted life years (QALYs) of participants in an occupational exposure surveillance program. The authors — 1) determined internal PCB load of program participants using gas chromatography with mass spectrometry in plasma; 2) used a questionnaire to assess health related quality of life (HRQL) and generated an HRQL index value; 3) used a linear model that combined HRQL index value with remaining life expectancy of an individual to calculate QALY; 4) used a Complex Number Model as alternate method to calculate QALYs; and 5) used a hierarchical linear regression model with control variables to assess whether PCB exposure was associated with individual HRQL and QALYs.

Sources Used:

• Remaining life expectancy values via the mortality table 2010 for Germany (Federal Statistical Office, 2012); Biomonitoring data (PCB levels in plasmas) from surveillance program participants (Schettgen et al., 2011); HRQL data from surveillance program participants using EQ-5D-3L self-report tool (Rabin et al., 2013); additional sources cited in publication

Economic Citation / Fundings

Citation:

• Esser A, Gube M, Schettgen T, Kraus T, and Lang J. QALY as evaluation tool in a health surveillance program. Int J Hyg Environ Health. 2014. 217; 42038.
• Pubmed
• DOI

NIEHS Funding:

• Not available

Other Funding:

• Institution for Statutory Accident Insurance and Prevention in the Energy, Textile, Electrical, and Media Industry (BGETEM), Cologne, Germany (unrestricted grant to the UK Hospital Aachen, RWTH Aachen University, grant number360328)