Table 2.

Parameters Used in the Simulation

Parameter		Final Case (Gomes et al). Natural Scale	Value Used in the Simulation (Log-Scale)	Justification
Total number of clusters	N	30	10	Test performance of methods when number of clusters is small
No. of individuals per cluster	$n_i$	50	20	Test performance of methods when sample size is small
Level of imbalance		0.5	0	Set to zero in the present simulation to check the impact of sample size only on performance of estimation procedures
ICC for costs	ICCc	0.05	0.5	Used only to reconstruct final case of Gomes et al.
ICC for outcomes	ICCq	0.02	0.02	Used only to reconstruct final case of Gomes et al.
Coefficient of variation (CV) for costs	CVc	0.5	0.65	Coefficient of variation on log-scale based on reconstructed final case data (Gomes et al. 2012)
Coefficient of variation for outcomes	CVq	0	0.65	Not reported in Gomes et al. as outcomes modeled using a normal distribution; we reconstructed their data assuming a CV of 0.5
Individual-level correlation of costs and effects	${\rho }_{w_1}$	−0.2	0	Assumed outcomes are independent given the random effects
Cluster-level correlation	${\rho }_{b_1}$	0.1	0.1	Justification given in Gomes et al. (2012)
Mean costs placebo	—	—	£100	Mean treatment and control group costs were taken to give a difference of £500 assumed in Gomes et al. (2012)
Mean costs of new treatment	—	—	£600
Mean effects of placebo	—	—	0.8	Mean effects for the treatment and control groups were taken to give a difference of 0.025 assumed in Gomes et al. (2012)
Mean effects of new treatment	—	—	0.875

ICC, intraclass correlation coefficient; CV, coefficient of variation (dispersion equal to CV squared).