Abstract

During a summer 2015 internship at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, I was part of a team studying the cost effectiveness of Home Based Self-Management and Cognitive Training Changes Lives (HOBSCOTCH), a self-management program for memory impairment in epilepsy patients designed by the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Epilepsy Center. Our method was to evaluate the number of healthcare encounters of the patients six months before and after the program, which took place from January 2013 to June 2014. Decreases in the number of encounters was equated with decreases in healthcare costs to both the patient and the healthcare system. The intervention group showed a decrease in both total and neurology encounters post-program, although the decrease was not statistically significant. The high frequency group, however, showed a statistically significant decrease in the total number of encounters. Data on encounters was also related to earlier data on quality of life and depression scores of the participants. Pre-program, high depression and/or low quality of life scores related directly to high numbers of neurology encounters for all patients. Post-program this association was not true for all patients with high depression and/or low quality of life scores. It is hypothesized that these changes are the result of participants learning to self-manage memory impairment, and this ability improved their quality of life and general health.

Publication Date

Spring 4-1-2016

Series

UNH Undergraduate Research Journal

Journal Title

Inquiry Journal

Editor

Rosie Donegan, Jennifer Lee

Mentor

Susan Fetzer, Karen Secore, Barbara C. Jobst

Publisher

Durham, NH: Hamel Center for Undergraduate Research, University of New Hampshire

Document Type

Article

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