ArticleCanadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien2001
Vitamin B12 injections versus oral supplements. How much money could be saved by switching from injections to pills?
Article in Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien, 2001. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT00699478 (Effect of Oral Vitamin B12 Administration for Vitamin B12 Deficiency After Total Gastrectomy), which is not on this map. Cited by 19 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Effect of Oral Vitamin B12 Administration for Vitamin B12 Deficiency After Total Gastrectomy
Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 56 citations in OpenAlex.
- Oral vitamin B12 versus intramuscular vitamin B12 for vitamin B12 deficiency.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2005Pooled it
- Trial
- Oral vitamin B12 for patients suspected of subtle cobalamin deficiency: a multicentre pragmatic randomised controlled trial.BMC family practice · 2011Trial
- Vitamin BMolecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Inherited and acquired vitamin B12 deficiencies: Which administration route to choose for supplementation?Frontiers in pharmacology · 2022Review
- Perspective: Practical Approach to Preventing Subclinical B12 Deficiency in Elderly Population.Nutrients · 2021Review
- Current Nanocarrier Strategies Improve Vitamin B12 Pharmacokinetics, Ameliorate Patients' Lives, and Reduce Costs.Nanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Oral Cyanocobalamin is Effective in the Treatment of Vitamin B12 Deficiency in Crohn's Disease.Nutrients · 2017Article
- Hyperhomocysteinemia causes ER stress and impaired autophagy that is reversed by Vitamin B supplementation.Cell death & disease · 2016Article
- Review
- Effect of administration route on the pharmacokinetics of cobalamin in elderly patients: a randomized controlled trial.Current therapeutic research, clinical and experimental · 2014Article
- Article
- Oral vitamin B12: a cost-effective alternative.Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien · 2014Article
- Vitamin B12 intramuscular injections versus oral supplements: a budget impact analysis.Ontario health technology assessment series · 2013Review
- [Oral treatment of vitamin B12 deficiency in subacute combined degeneration].Der Nervenarzt · 2006Article
- Medical intelligence in Sweden. Vitamin B12: oral compared with parenteral?Postgraduate medical journal · 2005Article
- Oral vitamin B12 therapy in the primary care setting: a qualitative and quantitative study of patient perspectives.BMC family practice · 2005Article
- [B12 vitamin deficiency and oral treatment. An option as efficient as (still) infrequently used].Atencion primaria · 2003Review
- [Oral treatment of vitamin B12 deficiency: are we ignoring the evidence?].Atencion primaria · 2003Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo estimate savings, using a third-party payer perspective, if all elderly patients currently receiving vitamin B12 (cobalamin) injections were switched to high-dose oral therapy.
designWe modeled high-dose oral B12 supplement costs to include drugs, pharmacists' fees, and one-time conversion costs consisting of two physician visits and laboratory monitoring. The number of vitamin-injection visits avoided by switching to oral therapy was predicted using a multivariate model that considered covariates for overall patient illness.
settingOntario family physicians' and internists' practices.
participantsPopulation-based administrative databases for Ontario were used to identify all people between 65 and 100 years who received parenteral vitamin B12 during 1995 and 1996.
main outcome measuresThe cost of parenteral vitamin B12 for each patient, including drugs, injections, pharmacists' fees, and injection-associated physician visits, was measured directly from the databases.
resultsThe annual cost of parenteral vitamin B12 therapy averaged $145.88 per person and totaled a maximum $25 million over 5 years. Converting all patients to high-dose oral B12 and treating them for 5 years would cost $7.4 million. Depending on how many vitamin-injection visits are avoided by switching to oral therapy, between $2.9 million and $17.6 million would be saved. Switching to oral B12 administration saved costs as long as 16.3% of injection-associated visits were avoided.
conclusionSwitching all patients from B12 injections to oral cobalamin therapy could result in substantial savings.
Indexed as
Identifiers
11212437PMC2014701W1957125559What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.