Objective: There are multiple reasons for missing data in observational studies; excluding patients with missing data can lead to significant bias. In this study, we evaluated several methods for assigning missing values to health service utilisation. Design and setting: Cancer of the Prostate...

Evidence produced by multinational trial-based cost-effectiveness studies is often used to inform decisions concerning the adoption of new healthcare technologies. A key issue relating to the use of this type of evidence is the extent to which trial-wide economic results are applicable to every...

Sample size and power for cost-effectiveness analysis depend on assumptions about the difference in cost and effect, the standard deviations of cost and effect, the correlation of the difference in cost and effect, the α and β errors and maximum willingness to pay (W). The first seven of these...

The UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has used its Single Technology Appraisal (STA) programme to assess several drugs for cancer. Typically, the evidence submitted by the manufacturer comes from one short-term randomized controlled trial (RCT) demonstrating...

Methods for determining sample size requirements for cost-effectiveness studies are reviewed and illustrated. Traditional methods based on tests of hypothesis and power arguments are given for the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio and incremental net benefit (INB). In addition, a full...

Basic sample size and power formulae for cost-effectiveness analysis have been established in the literature. These formulae are reviewed and the similarities and differences between sample size and power for cost-effectiveness analysis and for the analysis of other continuous variables such as...

Various methods have been proposed to address uncertainty in economic evaluations of healthcare programmes. One approach suggested in the literature is to estimate separate confidence intervals for the incremental costs and effects of a new health programme in comparison with an existing...