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Costs and Benefits of Prevention and Disease Management

  • Review Article
  • Published:
Disease Management and Health Outcomes

Abstract

Prevention and long term disease management have been added relatively recently as ‘new’ components of a modern day total healthcare services system. The goal of primary prevention, which includes medical preventive services, lifestyle interventions and screening services, is to maintain a symptom- and disease-free population. Disease management is a systematic post-disease attempt to manage the consequences of a disease.

This article focuses on the costs and savings of prevention and treatment for 7 major diseases which accounted for nearly 80% of the deaths in the US in 1990: heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, chronic bronchitis, influenza and asthma. The potential impact of prevention and disease management on costs, including productivity, represents a significant return-on-investment to society. Differences in the allocation of direct resources, however, make it nearly impossible to find a single suitable cost measure for the relative cost-effectiveness comparisons of prevention, acute treatment of disease and long term disease management. The relevant question may not be so much the relative cost effectiveness or benefits of the components of healthcare, but the benefits that an integrated approach brings to a total healthcare delivery system.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Health Management Research Center, University of Michigan, 1027 E. Huron Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48104-1668, USA

    Shirley A. Musich &  Dee W. Edington

  2. BANK ONE, Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, USA

    Wayne N. Burton (Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine)

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  1. Shirley A. Musich
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  2. Wayne N. Burton
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  3. Dee W. Edington
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Correspondence to Dee W. Edington.

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About the Authors: Shirley A. Musich, Ph.D. is a data analyst at the Health Management Research Center at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. Her research interests are in studying the associations between participation in health promotion programmes and changes in health risks and medical costs.

Wayne N. Burton, M.D. is Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for BANK ONE Corporation. His research interest is in providing health services to a large and diverse employee population to maintain health and high levels of productivity.

Dee W. Edington, Ph.D. is a Professor of Kinesiology and Director of the Health Management Research Center at the University of Michigan. His research interests are in studying the precursors to disease and the impact of prevention programmes on healthcare utilisation and costs.

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Musich, S.A., Burton, W.N. & Edington, D.W. Costs and Benefits of Prevention and Disease Management. Dis-Manage-Health-Outcomes 5, 153–166 (1999). https://doi.org/10.2165/00115677-199905030-00004

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