Table 6.
Quality assessment of each individual study according to Consensus on Health Economic Criteria (CHEC).
| No. | Items | Chaudhuri et al | Wilson et al | Matsui et al | Singh et al | Ozdemir et al | Elliott et al | Courville et al | Merollini et al | Theologis et al | Graves et al | Ceballos et al | Emohare et al | Lewis et al | Dhadwal et al | Joshi et al | Alekwe et al | Kosus et al | Patil et al | Gulluoglu et al | El-Mahallawy et al |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Is the study population clearly described? | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| 2 | Are competing alternatives clearly described? | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| 3 | Is a well-defined research question posed in answerable form? | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | Y | N | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| 4 | Is the economic study design appropriate to the stated objective? | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| 5 | Is the chosen time horizon appropriate to include relevant costs and consequences? | N | N | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | Y | N | N | Y | N | N |
| 6 | Is the actual perspective chosen appropriate? | N | N | N | Y | N | Y | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N |
| 7 | Are all important and relevant costs for each alternative identified? | Y | N | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | Y | N | Y | N | N | Y |
| 8 | Are all costs measured appropriately in physical units? | U | Y | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | U | Y | U | Y | U | Y | N | N | Y |
| 9 | Are costs valued appropriately? | U | U | U | Y | N | Y | Y | Y | U | Y | Y | U | U | U | U | U | U | U | U | U |
| 10 | Are all important and relevant outcomes for each alternative identified? | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| 11 | Are all outcomes measured appropriately? | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| 12 | Are outcomes valued appropriately? | U | U | U | Y | Y | U | Y | U | U | U | Y | U | U | U | U | U | U | U | U | Y |
| 13 | Is an incremental analysis of costs and outcomes of alternatives performed? | N | N | N | U | N | Y | U | Y | N | Y | Y | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N |
| 14 | Are all future costs and outcomes discounted appropriately? | U | U | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | Y | U | Y | Y | U | U | U | U | U | U | U | U | N |
| 15 | Are all important variables, whose values are uncertain, appropriately subjected to sensitivity analysis? | N | N | N | Y | N | U | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N |
| 16 | Do the conclusions follow from the data reported? | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| 17 | Does the study discuss the generalizability of the results to other settings and patient/client groups? | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | Y | N | N | Y | N | N | N | Y |
| 18 | Does the article indicate that there is no potential conflict of interest of study researcher(s) and funder(s)? | N | N | N | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | N | Y | U | Y | Y | Y | N | Y | N | Y | N | N |
| 19 | Are ethical and distributional issues discussed appropriately? | Y | N | Y | N | Y | N | N | N | N | Y | N | N | N | N | N | Y | N | N | Y | Y |
| Total score | 10 | 10.5 | 12 | 17.5 | 12 | 16 | 17.5 | 17.5 | 12.5 | 18.5 | 17.5 | 12 | 13.5 | 8 | 11.5 | 11 | 10.5 | 10.5 | 9.5 | 12.5 | |
N,no, with no points; U,Unclear, unclear with half a point; Y,Yes, with one point.