Publications by authors named "Yoko V Laurence"

Background: There has been an increasing interest in assessing disease-specific catastrophic costs incurred by affected households as part of economic evaluations and to inform joint social/health policies for vulnerable groups. Although the longitudinal study design is the gold standard for estimating disease-specific household costs, many assessments are implemented with a cross-sectional design for pragmatic reasons. We aimed at identifying the potential biases of a cross-sectional design for estimating household cost, using the example of tuberculosis (TB), and exploring optimal approaches for sampling and interpolating cross-sectional cost data to estimate household costs.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the financial impact of tuberculosis (TB) combined with diabetes (TB-DM) on patients and their households in the Philippines, a country with high TB rates and diabetes prevalence.
  • Data was collected over multiple points during treatment, looking at costs, income, and coping strategies among affected households in Negros Occidental and Cebu.
  • Results showed that while TB-DM patients required more frequent medical visits, both TB-DM and TB-only patients faced similar rates of catastrophic costs, indicating that having diabetes does not significantly increase the financial burden from TB.*
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Background: It is rare to find HIV/AIDS care providers in sub-Saharan Africa routinely providing mental health services, yet 8-30% of the people living with HIV have depression. In an ongoing trial to assess integration of collaborative care of depression into routine HIV services in Uganda, we will assess quality of life using the standard EQ-5D-5L, and the capability-based OxCAP-MH which has never been adapted nor used in a low-income setting. We present the results of the translation and validation process for cultural and linguistic appropriateness of the OxCAP-MH tool for people living with HIV/AIDS and depression in Uganda.

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Objective: To describe the characteristics and management of Diabetes mellitus (DM) patients from low- and middle-income countries (LMIC).

Methods: We systematically characterised consecutive DM patients attending public health services in urban settings in Indonesia, Peru, Romania and South Africa, collecting data on DM treatment history, complications, drug treatment, obesity, HbA1c and cardiovascular risk profile; and assessing treatment gaps against relevant national guidelines.

Results: Patients (median 59 years, 62.

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Article Synopsis
  • The post-2015 End TB Strategy aims to cut tuberculosis incidence by 50% and mortality by 75% by 2025, focusing on strategies in China, India, and South Africa to achieve these goals.
  • Researchers assessed various intervention scenarios and their costs, finding that expanding tuberculosis services could lead to significant health improvements and even cost savings in India and China, despite high initial funding needs.
  • Overall, the expansion of tuberculosis services appears to be cost-effective, offering substantial health benefits; however, further research is needed to identify the best intervention strategies for each country.
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Background: Novel tuberculosis (TB) drugs and the need to treat drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) are likely to bring about substantial transformations in TB treatment in coming years. An evidence base for cost and cost-effectiveness analyses of these developments is needed.

Objective: Our objective was to perform a review of papers assessing provider-incurred as well as patient-incurred costs of treating both drug-susceptible (DS) and multidrug-resistant (MDR)-TB.

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To help reach the target of tuberculosis (TB) disease elimination by 2050, vaccine development needs to occur now. We estimated the impact and cost-effectiveness of potential TB vaccines in low- and middle-income countries using an age-structured transmission model. New vaccines were assumed to be available in 2024, to prevent active TB in all individuals, to have a 5-y to lifetime duration of protection, to have 40-80% efficacy, and to be targeted at "infants" or "adolescents/adults.

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