COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN ALLOPATHIC AND HERBAL THERAPIES OF COMMON COLD, DEPRESSION AND TRAUMA IN THE CITY OF KARACHI: A COST UTILITY AND RELATIONSHIP ANALYSIS

Abstract

A comparative cross-sectional study, utilized 1,068 patients (stratified random samples; n=178 per therapy) from 0 to 75+ years of age, belonging to 178 union councils of Karachi, assessing preference among allopathic and herbal therapies in terms of provided utility in common cold, depression and trauma via surveys, assuming no significant relationship between age group, sex and cost of illness with disability-adjusted-life-years. Utilized known costs of illness and prevalence for diseases, calculated the disability-adjusted-life-years and the utility. The differences (allopathic less herbal therapy) in disability-adjusted-life-years; and utility-to-cost-ratio of therapies were: 1,025.18 yrs.; 6.66, 145,869.42 yrs; -1.55 and 82.91 yrs; 24.45 for common cold, depression and trauma, respectively. There were statistically insignificant relationships of age group, sex and cost of illness with disability-adjusted-life-years (P > 0.05). Comparatively, the herbal therapies proved less costly, with fewer disability-adjusted-life-years and hence with more utility.