Background: New challenges await our healthcare. It is within the responsibility of decision-makers and medical practitioners to use the limited resources as efficiently as possible. Therefore a systematic review of economic evaluations in primary care is necessary.
Methods: Studies were identified by systematic search in pub med and the National Health Service Economic Evaluation Database up to 2016. These studies were reviewed by two independent reviewers and included or excluded and categorized afterwards.
Results: There were 384 eligible studies included. Over time there was a growth in publications. 71,61% of the studies were classified as Cost-Effectiveness Analysis. Most evaluated national Settings were United Kingdom (37,8%), USA (16,1%) and Netherlands (10,4%). Therapeutic interventions were most common (48,4%). Concerning pathologies most studies evaluated mental health (22,1%) and cardiovascular diseases (14,6%).
Discussion: Economic evaluations of Interventions and structures in primary care have gained significant international relevance. National settings of many such evaluations are often those with strong primary care. The value of economic evaluations in primary care within Germany is comparatively low. Highly relevant and urgent studies evaluating specific services of general practitioners are almost not to be found. Further research has to follow up this project to evaluate the methodical process of the included studies and to further follow up on these trends.
