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The Economic Evaluation Checklist

Sometimes when an original study is done to investigate the economics of health, health journals and other publishers of health studies ask that the authors of the paper presenting the results complete an economic evaluation checklist. This is carried out in order to ensure that studies on health economics conform to the guidelines published by those regulatory organizations. For example, the British Medical Journal requires an economic evaluation checklist be completed for all original studies, conforming to its guidelines published in 1996.

  1. Health Economics

    • Health economics is a broad area of study used to determine the social and economic causes and effects of scarce health care resources. For example, someone in the field of health economics might launch a study into the effects of smokers on the distribution of drugs that treat lung cancer.

    Study

    • In the first part of the economic evaluation checklist, background information on the study is given. This includes a clear statement of the research question and an argument for why this research question is relevant to economic matters. This section must also answer questions on viewpoints of the analysis, the form of economic evaluation that was used and how the chosen form of economic analysis was justified in light of the answers to the previous questions.

    Methods

    • In the second part of the economic evaluation checklist, presenters of the study must answer questions on data collection methods. They must disclose the sources of the effectiveness estimates used, details of the study's design, details on the method of synthesis or the meta-analysis of estimates and the primary outcome measures for the economic evaluation. They must also present information on the methods used to value health states and other benefits related to health economics, details of the subjects used in the study, quantities of resources and currency and price data.

    Results

    • In the final part of the economic evaluation checklist, presenters of the study must give a time horizon of benefits and costs, justify their choice of discount rates and give details of statistical tests and confidence levels for stochastic data. They must also give detailed information on their approach to sensitivity analysis, the choice of variables for sensitivity analysis and the range over which the variables were distributed. Finally, major outcomes and the answer to the study question are given.

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