Table 4.
Economic evaluation components: analytical methods
| Analytical methods | Input cost analysis | Economic analysis | Cost-related outcome analysis | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CMA | CCA | CEA | CUA | CBA | |||
| Data sources | |||||||
| Historical/published costs used in comparison | 1 | 1 | 1 | 13 | |||
| Historical/estimated costs for pre/post comparison | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Historical/estimated costs used to project costs/benefits | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 3 | ||
| Accounting | |||||||
| Adjusted for inflation, discounting, cost amortization/depreciation | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| Included sensitivity analysis, scenarios | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | ||
| Used ICER, ROI, payback, NPV, net benefit, operating margin | 2 | 2 | 1 | 6 | |||
| Used least cost, average cost, savings | 4 | 1 | 14 | ||||
| Used QALY ratios | 1 | ||||||
| Statistics | |||||||
| Regression, logistic regression | 5 | ||||||
| General linear/mixed model | 3 | ||||||
| Group differences, eg, χ2, t test, ANOVA, proportions | 1 | 10 | |||||
| Econometric/operations research | |||||||
| Panel regression, fixed effect | 1 | ||||||
| Parametric cost analysis | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Stochastic frontier analysis, including alternatives for checks | 1 | ||||||
| Simulation with Markov, Monte Carlo models | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Used mean inefficiency score, regression coefficient | 2 | ||||||
Counts represent the number of papers including each method. See online supplementary appendix 11 for this table with all paper references. Descriptions of analytical methods are included in online supplementary appendix 4.
ANOVA, analysis of variance; CBA, cost-benefit analysis; CCA, cost-consequence analysis; CEA, cost-effectiveness analysis; CMA, cost-minimization analysis; CUA, cost-utility analysis; ICER, incremental cost-effectiveness ratio; NPV, net present value; QALY, quality-adjusted life year; ROI, return on investment.