Economic dimensions of community nursing: a systematic literature review

Katharina Buzath

Duration: January to September 2023
Language: German (with Englisch summary)

Background: Community Nursing is a new model of care in Austria to strengthen the health of the elderly population. The concept includes outreach activities and activities at the community level. It is unclear whether the use of community nursing is also useful or recommendable from an economic point of view.

Aims: Review of the international health economics literature on community nursing to assess cost-effectiveness and gain insights into methodological approaches.

Research questions:

1.   How is the health economics literature on community nursing characterized (e.g., in terms of target populations, disease patterns, outcomes measured, and costs)?

2.    What are the results of international health economic studies on community nursing and how transferable are they to Austria?

3.     What methods are used to evaluate the economic dimensions (e.g., cost-effectiveness) of community nursing?

Method: systematic literature review of economic studies of community nursing. Depending on the study type, the quality of the studies is assessed using the CHEC checklist (for economic evaluations) or the AMSTAR II tool (for reviews).

The review will be based on a master's thesis which is completed as part of the master's degree program "Public Health" at Paracelsus Medical University Salzburg.