Economic evaluation: a reader's guide to studies of cost-effectiveness.
J Haxby Abbott, Ross Wilson, Yana Pryymachenko, Saurab Sharma, Anupa Pathak, Jason Y Y Chua
PMID 36517825WHAT IT FOUND
This paper is a guide to reading economic evaluations.
It explains concepts like cost-effectiveness ratios and quality-adjusted life years but reports no original research findings, patient outcomes, or treatment effects.
What this paper is
This is an educational primer explaining how to read and interpret cost-effectiveness studies, including definitions of terms like QALYs and ICERs. It contains no original patient data, no clinical trial results, and no specific findings about treatment efficacy or cost, so there is nothing here to change your practice on.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat the examples used to explain statistical concepts (such as hypothetical QALY gains or cost savings) as evidence that specific physiotherapy interventions are cost-effective. The paper describes how to read these studies, not the results of any new study.