Table 2.
Descriptive statistics of the 245 interventions
| No. Interventions (%)Total 245 | ||
| Patient/disease characteristics | ||
| AR-DRGs | Musculoskeletal and connective tissue | 33 (13) |
| Mental diseases and disorders | 32 (13) | |
| Alcohol or drug use | 29 (12) | |
| Circulatory system | 22 (9) | |
| Endocrine nutritional and metabolic disorder/disease | 20 (8) | |
| Infectious and parasitic diseases | 20 (8) | |
| Other | 89 (36) | |
| Target Age | Children aged 0 to 14 years | 34 (14) |
| Young adults age 14 to 25 years | 5 (2) | |
| Working age adults 25 to 65 years | 14 (6) | |
| Elderly aged 65+ years | 20 (8) | |
| Children and young adults aged 0 to 25 years | 2 (1) | |
| Young adults and adults aged 14 to 65 years | 63 (26) | |
| Adults and elderly aged 25 to 65 plus years | 92 (38) | |
| All | 11 (5) | |
| Mixture of the above groups | 4 (2) | |
| Target population | Specific | 200 (82) |
| General population | 45 (18) | |
| Ability to reduce own risk | To some extent | 123 (50) |
| No | 122 (50) | |
| Condition caused by patients' own behaviour | To some extent | 127 (52) |
| No | 118 (48) | |
| Intervention details | ||
| Type | Medical | 177 (72) |
| Lifestyle | 68 (28) | |
| Objective | Treatment | 119 (49) |
| Prevention | 78 (32) | |
| Screening | 33 (14) | |
| Diagnosis | 7 (3) | |
| Combination | 8 (3) | |
| Prevention stage | Primary (completely avert disease) | 78 (32) |
| Secondary (slow/halt progression of disease) | 119 (49) | |
| Tertiary (limit disability after harm) | 48 (20) | |
| Modality | Pharmaceutical | 52 (21) |
| Primary medical care or specialist care | 65 (27) | |
| Community/media/education | 39 (16) | |
| Hospital inpatient | 26 (11) | |
| Vaccination | 17 (7) | |
| Allied health | 29 (12) | |
| Combination of modalities | 9 (4) | |
| Other | 8 (3) | |
| Nature of publication & study methodology | ||
| Year of publication | Median (range) | 2002 (1989 to 2005) |
| Strength of evidence | Strong-RCT/meta-analysis | 132 (54) |
| Limited | 113 (46) | |
| Where published | Peer reviewed journal | 185 (76) |
| Government report | 18 (7) | |
| Other peer-reviewed report | 26 (11) | |
| Other non peer reviewed report | 16 (7) | |
| Publication type | General medicine | 52 (21) |
| Specialist medicine | 85 (35) | |
| Health economics/policy/HTA/public health | 108 (44) | |
| Perspective | Health system | 212 (87) |
| Societal | 33 (14) | |
| Measure of Outcome | Life year | 79 (32) |
| QALY | 119 (49) | |
| DALY | 46 (19) | |
| HYE | 1 (1) | |
| Discount rate | 0% | 27 (13) |
| 3% | 22 (10) | |
| 5% | 190 (78) | |
| Missing | 12 (6) | |
| Time horizon of the model in years | Median | 15 |
| Interquartile range | 1 to 25 | |
| Missing | 89 (36) | |
| Duration of benefit in years | Median | 4 |
| Interquartile range | 1 to 6 | |
| Missing | 81 (33) | |
| Downstream costs/savings | Included | 140 (57) |
| Quality | ||
| Q-Comparator | Appropriate | 215 (88) |
| Q-Costs | Appropriate (marginal and clear) | 185 (76) |
| Q-Sensitivity analysis | Performed | 239 (98) |
| Q-Overall | Met all three requirements above | 173 (71) |
| Cost effectiveness | ||
| More effective but more costly | 214 (87) | |
| Median | $19,017 | |
| Interquartile range | $5,997 to $45,670 | |
| Dominated | 11 (5) | |
| Dominant | 20 (8) | |
| Funding & implementation | ||
| Funding status | Fully funded | 87 (35) |
| Partially funded | 75 (31) | |
| Not funded | 83 (34) | |
| Patients required to make contribution to costs | Yes | 178 (73) |