Vision impairment and blindness create a significant impact on quality of life and loss of productivity. Health care expenditures for vision problems, including direct medical costs and indirect costs for support services and loss of productivity, amount to $139 billion annually. It is projected that by 2020, five million people will have visual impairment due to age related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema. VEGF inhibitor therapy has been shown to be a cost-effective treatment for age related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema that has reduced the incidence of vision loss and can reduce the associated economic and societal cost.
Keywords: QALY; VEGF; cost-effectiveness; diabetic macular edema; macular degeneration.