Abstract
Economic evaluations in Dentistry have been increasing in recent years. They are a relevant contribution if an economic issue exists. Knowing if a new intervention is an efficient way of allocating available (and scarce) resources (the concept of opportunity costs), a well-designed economic evaluation may be helpful. One option is to conduct a trial-based economic analysis, which extracts a considerable board of information from a trial. This approach produces a more controlled result since many sources of variations might be reduced. On the other hand, some aspects could not be predicted directly from the trial or even extrapolated. Thus, combining model-based analysis may be an idea. In this paper, we intended to discuss important aspects to be considered by researchers in further economic evaluations. This paper will be systematically divided into sessions related to the study design as time horizon and perspective, health effects, costs, and data analysis. In the end, we expect the reader could be able to plan a trial-based economic evaluation, which should be a careful, meticulous, quite laborious and especially transparent process.
Highlights
On the one hand, the evidence-based practice advocates such type of practice will opt for most efficacious interventions to maximize the quantity and quality of life of patients.[1]
Some believe evidence-based practices are a way to cut the costs of health care 1
Solving this duality points to the actual relevance of economic evaluations related to health care
Summary
The evidence-based practice advocates such type of practice will opt for most efficacious interventions to maximize the quantity and quality of life of patients (i.e., optimize the effect of a tested approach).[1]. To assert or answer about efficient resource allocation considering a health care strategy (e.g., some dental treatment or diagnostic approach), economic evaluations should be designed combining simultaneously two different outcomes: the health effects, health statuses, or consequences related to the tested strategies (outputs) along with costs (inputs). Considering the example above about the health system manager, you could assess, using the cost-utility analysis, how much we would spend per QALY to implement the new strategy for caries prevention or periodontal pocket reduction and, decide about the most advantageous way for allocating the resources as mentioned above. Costs Differently from the health effects (usually collected in efficacy or effectiveness trials), to nest an economic evaluation in a trial, it is important to collect costs related to health care strategies or interventions In this sense, two main questions may be raised: a) Which costs should be considered? If this information does not exist, information about the useful clinical hour value might be collected among a group of
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