Cost-effectiveness analysis of spontaneous vaginal delivery vs elective cesarean delivery for maternal outcomes in Colombia.

Background: In worldwide literature, it has been found that cesarean deliveries represent higher costs and are associated with maternal morbidity and other complications.

Objective: This study aimed to estimate the cost-effectiveness of elective cesarean delivery compared with spontaneous vaginal delivery in short-term maternal outcomes for low-risk obstetrical population in Colombia.

Study Design: A cost-effectiveness study using a healthcare-system perspective was performed in 2019 in Colombia.

Cost-effectiveness of a Dengue Vector Control Intervention in Colombia.

Dengue is a public health problem in Colombia and in the municipality of Girardot, an area of high risk for dengue transmission. We present the results of an economic evaluation from the societal perspective and 1-year time horizon comparing the regular control program for dengue prevention versus an intervention that comprised an environmental management strategy by covering the most Aedes aegypti productive breeding sites with insecticide covers, community actions, and educational activities. The effectiveness of the intervention was measured as the reduction in probability of dengue infection obtained from a community trial.

Costos Unitarios Para Procedimientos en Salud en Colombia: Un Insumo Decisivo Para las Evaluaciones Económicas en Salud.

Objectives: Since 2011, there is a recommendation in Colombia to value health procedures: apply the tariffs of a 2001 manual used in a former public insurer with an adjustment factor of 35% (Instituto de Seguros Sociales [ISS] 2001). Nevertheless, the adjustment factor is not periodically updated, which limits the external validity of studies using these values and might also affect internal validity of studies, given that we are using possibly biased unit costs. This study aimed to compare unit values for health procedures using 2 sources: the ISS 2001 manual and individual records of service provision in Colombia (Registros Individuales de Prestación de Servicios de Salud [RIPS]), to evaluate the validity of the adjustment factor proposed in the Colombian reference case.

[Analysis of budgetary impact of COVID-19 vaccination in Latin AmericaAnálise do impacto orçamentário da vacinação contra a COVID-19 na América Latina].

Objective: To estimate the budgetary impact of COVID-19 vaccination in six Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, during the 2021-2022 biennium.

Methods: Vaccines from Sinopharm (BBIBP-CorV), Janssen (JNJ-78436735), Gamaleya Institute (Gam-COVID-Vac), Sinovac (CoronaVac), CanSino (Convidecia), AstraZeneca (Vaxzevria), Moderna (mRNA-1273), and Pfizer (BNT162b2) were evaluated, according to their availability in each country. The health system perspective was adopted, so that only direct health care costs were included.

Access to paediatric cardiac surgery in Colombia: a population-based study.

Objectives: Globally congenital heart disease mortality is declining, yet the proportion of infant deaths attributable to heart disease rises in Colombia and other middle-sociodemographic countries. We aimed to assess the accessibility of paediatric cardiac surgery (PCS) to children <18 years of age in 2016 in the South American country of Colombia.

Methods: In Bogotá, Colombia, a multi-national team used cross-sectional and retrospective cohort study designs to adapt and evaluate 4 health system indicators at the national level: first, the population with timely geographic access to an institution providing PCS; second, the number of paediatric cardiac surgeons; third, this specialized procedure volume and its national distribution; and fourth, the 30-day perioperative mortality rate after PCS in Colombia.

Use of the six core surgical indicators from the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery in Colombia: a situational analysis.

Background: Surgical, anaesthetic, and obstetric (SAO) health-care system strengthening is needed to address the emergency and essential surgical care that approximately 5 billion individuals lack globally. To our knowledge, a complete, non-modelled national situational analysis based on the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery surgical indicators has not been done. We aimed to undertake a complete situation analysis of SAO system preparedness, service delivery, and financial risk protection using the core surgical indicators proposed by the Commission in Colombia, an upper-middle-income country.

Comparison of the QuantiFERON-TB and tuberculin skin test for detection of latent tuberculosis infection in cancer patients in a developing country.

Cancer patients have an increased risk of reactivation of latent tuberculosis infection. It is unknown which strategy on screening should be used in this population in developing countries. We aimed to determine the concordance between the tuberculin skin test (TST) and QuantiFERON-TB (QFT) assay in order to diagnose latent tuberculosis infection in cancer patients.

Prevalence of lower urinary tract symptoms and overactive bladder in men and women over 18 years old: The Colombian overactive bladder and lower urinary tract symptoms (COBaLT) study.

Aims: To estimate the prevalence of LUTS and overactive bladder (OAB) in the Colombian population.

Methods: A cross-sectional, population-based study was conducted in men and women ≥18 years using directed interviews and self-administered questionnaires in five main cities in Colombia. A sample size of 1054 subjects was estimated (prevalence of LUTS/OAB 15%, CI 95%, statistical power 80%, precision 3%).

[The cost-effectiveness of interferon beta treatment in patients with a clinically isolated syndrome in Colombia].

Introduction: Approximately 85% of patients with multiple sclerosis have an initial demyelinating event. Treatment with interferon beta delays the progression of multiple sclerosis for nearly two years in patients with a clinically isolated syndrome. In Colombia, interferon is very expensive when compared to other countries.

Epidemiology of sepsis in Colombian intensive care units.

Introduction: Currently, there is not enough data available concerning sepsis in developing countries, especially in Latin America.

Objective: We developed a study aimed at determining the frequency, clinical and epidemiological characteristics, and the consequences of sepsis in patients requiring admission to intensive care units in Colombia.

Materials And Methods: This was a secondary analysis of a prospective cohort study carried out over a six-month period, from September 1, 2007, to February 28, 2008, in ten medical/surgical intensive care units in four Colombian cities.

Clinical course of sepsis, severe sepsis, and septic shock in a cohort of infected patients from ten Colombian hospitals.

Background: Sepsis has several clinical stages, and mortality rates are different for each stage. Our goal was to establish the evolution and the determinants of the progression of clinical stages, from infection to septic shock, over the first week, as well as their relationship to 7-day and 28-day mortality.

Methods: This is a secondary analysis of a multicenter cohort of inpatients hospitalized in general wards or intensive care units (ICUs).

The epidemiology of sepsis in Colombia: a prospective multicenter cohort study in ten university hospitals.

Objective: Our aim was to determine the frequency and the clinical and epidemiologic characteristics of sepsis in a hospital-based population in Colombia.

Design: Prospective cohort.

Setting: Ten general hospitals in the four main cities of Colombia.