Table 3.
Cost per QALY/DALY/HYE by patient/disease characteristics, intervention characteristics, methodological attributes, quality of study, funding of intervention
| Variable name | Categories | ICER | χ2, p-valuea | ||
| 25th percentile | 50th percentile (median) | 75th percentile | |||
| Target population | General population | $8,798 | $20,449 | $150,496 | |
| Specific (targeted high risk group) | $2,392 | $17,220 | $45,068 | 2.446, 0.118 | |
| Age group | 0 to 25 years | $11,586 | $41,195 | $149,581 | |
| > 25 years | $2,370 | $15,927 | $42,801 | 8.903, 0.003 | |
| Type of intervention | Medical eg physician consult, pharmaceuticals, vaccinations, diagnostic tests, inpatient visits | $5,946 | $21,898 | $57,363 | 8.247, 0.004 |
| Lifestyle eg advice to alter diet/physical activity | $1,678 | $10,015 | $24,920 | ||
| Modality1 | Pharmaceutical | $11,781 | $26,871 | $53,986 | |
| All else (primary/specialist care, vaccination, allied health, community/media/education, inpatient) | $2,232 | $15,270 | $44,558 | 2.787, 0.095 | |
| Modality2 | Allied health, community/media/education | $1,899 | $9,591 | $31,749 | 4.609, 0.032 |
| All else | $5,507 | $20,449 | $57,363 | ||
| Vaccination | Vaccination | $12,625 | $56,408 | $156,400 | |
| All else | $2,642 | $17,827 | $44,711 | 4.310, 0.038 | |
| Objective of intervention | Treatment (eg cox2 inhibiters to ameliorate symptoms of osteoarthritis) | $2,045 | $14,161 | $38,620 | 2.275, 0.131 |
| All else (prevention, screening, diagnosis, combination) | $4,674 | $20,650 | $58,817 | ||
| Disease stage | 1) Treatments designed to completely avert disease/injury or slow, halt or reverse progression of disease/injury (primary and secondary prevention) | $2,514 | $17,827 | $43,805 | 2.534, 0.111 |
| 2) Treatments designed to limit disability after harm has occurred (tertiary prevention) | $6,048 | $19,310 | $133,284 | ||
| Ability to reduce own risk of disease/injury | To some extent (eg heart disease) | $1,671 | $13,778 | $32,644 | |
| No | $7,679 | $25,747 | $111,031 | 14.723, < 0.001 | |
| Condition caused by patients' own behaviour | To some extent (eg liver cirrhosis) | $1,664 | $13,311 | $25,894 | |
| No | $10,299 | $29,609 | $100,871 | 24.001, < 0.001 | |
| Year | Pre-1993b | $1,698 | $6,259 | $97,213 | |
| 1993† to 1997c | $11,367 | $34,820 | $81,629 | ||
| Post-1997c | $3,436 | $17,616 | $43,769 | 3.177, 0.204 | |
| Strength of evidence | Strong – RCT and/or meta-analysis | $3,524 | $18,282 | $44,794 | |
| Limited – other study design | $2,356 | $18,039 | $56,608 | 0.072, 0.788 | |
| Perspective | Health system | $2,642 | $17,613 | $46,738 | |
| Societal | $8,122 | $20,165 | $75,116 | 1.335, 0.248 | |
| Outcome | Life year | $18,724 | |||
| QALY/DALY/HYE | $17,827 | 0.080, 0.777 | |||
| Discount rate | < 5% | $7,981 | $25,747 | $43,761 | |
| = 5% | $2,407 | $15,553 | $54,028 | 0.436, 0.509 | |
| Downstream costs/savings | Included | $1,846 | $13,871 | $40,658 | |
| Not | $6,897 | $21,405 | $59,317 | 3.866, 0.049 | |
| Q-Comparator | Appropriate | $6,437 | $20,891 | $58,318 | |
| Not | $983 | $2,257 | $6,409 | 27.392, < 0.001 | |
| Q-Costs | Appropriate (marginal and clear) | $3,802 | $21,885 | $54,483 | |
| Not | $2,045 | $12,706 | $25,082 | 3.554, 0.059 | |
| Q-Sensitivity | Performed | $3,189 | $18,360 | $51,583 | |
| Not | $1,695 | $10.895 | $30,736 | 0.756, 0.385 | |
| Q-Overall | Adequate | $4,406 | $22,437 | $56,395 | |
| Not | $2,221 | $14,082 | $22,887 | 5.111, 0.024 | |
| Funding status | Fully funded | $5,735 | $20,165 | $53,558 | |
| Partially funded | $1,358 | $9,011 | $35,429 | 10.870, 0.004 | |
| Not funded | $6,351 | $20,850 | $97,378 | ||
| Patients required to contribute to costs | Yes (eg co-payment for pharmaceuticals) | $3,789 | $18,724 | $43,769 | 0.035, 0.852 |
| No (eg immunisations provided free of charge) | $7,981 | $15,733 | $110,806 | ||
a) Statistical significance was assessed using the median value and the Kruskall-Wallace H test for independent samples, all degrees of freedom were equal to one with the exception of the test for year of publication where df = 2, statistically significant results are highlighted in bold
b) From January 1993, the PBAC required to take into account cost effectiveness when making recommendations for listing.
c) Establishment of the Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC) in 1998.