Reviewer's report
Title:Cost-effectiveness of acupuncture for irritable bowel syndrome: findings
from an economic evaluation conducted alongside a pragmatic randomised
controlled trial in primary care.
Version: 2Date:21 June 2012
Reviewer: Julie Ratcliffe
Reviewer's report:
This paper documents a well conducted economic evaluation of the cost
effectiveness of acupuncture for irritable bowel syndrome.
Minor essential revisions
I have one comment which needs to be addressed. This relates to
the discussion section on page 10 and the finding that acupuncture may be a
cost effective treatment option for patients with severe IBS. The paper would be
strengthened by a re-phrasing of the statement that this group 'sometimes' use a
substantial use of health care resources. Is there any evidence available in the
form of published papers which could be referenced here to back up this
statement? For what proportion of severe IBS patients are costs and resource
use generally high and if there is some variation in treattment patterns, resource
use and costs why is this the case? The authors should also highlight that an
economic model to extrapolate long term costs and effects would also be helpful
in more clearly demonstrating the cost effectiveness or otherwise of acupunctire
for this group of severe IBS patients since the utilisation of health care resources
over the long term could then be incorporated directly into the economic
modelling approach and accounted for in the economic analysis.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
Reviewer's report
Title:Cost-effectiveness of acupuncture for irritable bowel syndrome: findings
from an economic evaluation conducted alongside a pragmatic randomised
controlled trial in primary care.
Version: 2Date:21 June 2012
Reviewer: Julie Ratcliffe
Reviewer's report:
This paper documents a well conducted economic evaluation of the cost
effectiveness of acupuncture for irritable bowel syndrome.
Minor essential revisions
I have one comment which needs to be addressed. This relates to
the discussion section on page 10 and the finding that acupuncture may be a
cost effective treatment option for patients with severe IBS. The paper would be
strengthened by a re-phrasing of the statement that this group 'sometimes' use a
substantial use of health care resources. Is there any evidence available in the
form of published papers which could be referenced here to back up this
statement? For what proportion of severe IBS patients are costs and resource
use generally high and if there is some variation in treattment patterns, resource
use and costs why is this the case? The authors should also highlight that an
economic model to extrapolate long term costs and effects would also be helpful
in more clearly demonstrating the cost effectiveness or otherwise of acupunctire
for this group of severe IBS patients since the utilisation of health care resources
over the long term could then be incorporated directly into the economic
modelling approach and accounted for in the economic analysis.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
Please review this paper.
user
Reviewer's report
Title:Cost-effectiveness of acupuncture for irritable bowel syndrome: findings
from an economic evaluation conducted alongside a pragmatic randomised
controlled trial in primary care.
Version: 2Date:21 June 2012
Reviewer: Julie Ratcliffe
Reviewer's report:
This paper documents a well conducted economic evaluation of the cost
effectiveness of acupuncture for irritable bowel syndrome.
Minor essential revisions
I have one comment which needs to be addressed. This relates to
the discussion section on page 10 and the finding that acupuncture may be a
cost effective treatment option for patients with severe IBS. The paper would be
strengthened by a re-phrasing of the statement that this group 'sometimes' use a
substantial use of health care resources. Is there any evidence available in the
form of published papers which could be referenced here to back up this
statement? For what proportion of severe IBS patients are costs and resource
use generally high and if there is some variation in treattment patterns, resource
use and costs why is this the case? The authors should also highlight that an
economic model to extrapolate long term costs and effects would also be helpful
in more clearly demonstrating the cost effectiveness or otherwise of acupunctire
for this group of severe IBS patients since the utilisation of health care resources
over the long term could then be incorporated directly into the economic
modelling approach and accounted for in the economic analysis.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
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