Model-based Cost-effectiveness Analysis of Atorvastatin Drugs for Prevention of Cardiovascular Diseases in Iran

BACKGROUND: Today, cardiovascular disease is one of the main causes of mortality and disability in most developed and developing countries. The prediction of the major causes of deaths all over the world at all ages shows that 61% of deaths are due to chronic diseases, of which 30% is due to cardiovascular disease. The aim of this study was to assess the cost-utility analysis of atorvastatin for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases using the Markov model. METHODS: Markov model with a lifetime horizon was developed to evaluate economic and health outcomes for atorvastatin drugs for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases for a cohort of 1,000 patients. The effectiveness indicator in this study was quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs); robustness of results was examined by one-way and probabilistic sensitivity analysis. RESULTS: The results showed that the use of atorvastatin compared to no drug intervention was highly cost-effective with USD173 per additional QALY. The results of one-way and probabilistic sensitivity analysis confirmed the results of this study. The findings of this study also showed that the highest cost items were hospitalization costs in the cardiac care unit (CCU). Also, the highest cost items in para-clinical services were related to echocardiography costs, and troponin constituted the largest cost of laboratory tests. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the results of this study, it is recommended that cardiologists use atorvastatin in the prevention of cardiovascular disease.