Joint Seminar of Department of Business Statistics and Econometrics

and Department of Health Economics

Title: Statistical methods for cost-effectiveness analyses

Speaker: Xiao-Hua Andrew Zhou, Ph.D

Professor, Department of Biostatistics, University of Washington

Director of Biostatistics Unit, VA Puget Sound Health Care System

Time: Oct. 26 (Thursday), 14:30-15:30

Location: Room 219, Guanghua Building

Abstract: The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) and the net

health benefit (NHB) have been well accepted as measures for cost-

effectiveness in health economics. Due to the skewed distribution nature of health costs, however, constructing an appropriate confidence interval for ICER or NHB is a challenge. In this talk, we introduce new confidence intervals for the ICER and the NHB and compare the new intervals with several existing methods. The methods evaluated include Taylor's interval,Fieller's interval, the bootstrap percentile interval, and the bootstrap bias-corrected acceleration interval. Through simulation studies, we found

that our new intervals give good coverage accuracy and are narrower

compared to the current recommended intervals. Finally, we apply our method to a randomized trial on the cost effectiveness of a collaborative care intervention, compared to the usual primary care setting, in patients with

panic disorder.