Table 1.

Definitions used to categorise included studies

Study design
prospective cost study	cost study informed by data gathered from a prospective cohort of patients
retrospective cost study	cost study informed by data collected from a retrospective cohort of patients, e.g. medical records, case notes
database analysis	analysis of patient records from an already existing database, e.g. health insurance claims, hospital reimbursements
mathematical model	mathematical model (+/− simulation) extrapolating primary data to produce original estimates beyond their original scope e.g. time and location
survey	cross-sectional study of patients +/− controls
COI study	cost-of-illness study evaluating the region or country-level economic consequences that the presence of disease and its outcomes exert on individuals and society as a whole
Study scope
Institutional	Study conducted in one or more health care facilities, with no specified geographical scope below national level and no evidence of a sampling procedure to ensure representativeness
City	Study conducted in health care facilities in a specified city
Regional	Study conducted in health care facilities in a specified sub-national administrative unit (e.g. region, province, state)
National	Study conducted at the national level, either through representative sampling of health care facilities or through modelling
International	Multi-country study
Other	Other than above or multiple categories
Economic perspective
Patient	Study reporting direct costs incurred only by patients (e.g. out-of-pocket payments)
Provider	Study reporting costs incurred by the health care provider (e.g. average unit cost of an inpatient day)
Third-party payer	Study reporting costs incurred at the level of a third-party payer (e.g. insurance fund, Ministry of Health vertical programme)
Societal	Study reporting some form of indirect cost, incurred at any level (e.g. value of lost productivity due to illness, effect of CVD on national income)
Other	Other perspectives (e.g. pharmaceutical sector) or multiple perspectives (e.g. patient and provider)
Unclear	Could not be determined based on the information provided