Methods for systematic reviews of economic evaluations for the Guide to Community Preventive Services

Objectives. This paper describes the methods used in the Guide to Community Preventive Services: Systematic Reviews and Evidence-Based Recommendations (the Guide) for conducting systematic reviews of economic evaluations acro ss community health-promotion and disease-prevention interventions. The lac k of standardized methods to improve the comparability of results from econ omic evaluations has hampered the use of data on costs and financial benefi ts in evidence-based reviews of effectiveness. The methods and instruments developed for the Guide provide an explicit and systematic approach for abs tracting economic evaluation data and increase the usefulness of economic i nformation for policy making in health care and public health. Methods. The following steps were taken for systematic reviews of economic evaluations: (1) systematic searches were conducted; (2) studies using econ omic analytic methods, such as cost analysis or cost-effectiveness, cost-be nefit or cost-utility analysis, were selected according to explicit inclusi on criteria; (3) economic data were abstracted and adjusted using a standar dized abstraction form; and (4) adjusted summary measures were listed in su mmary tables. Results. These methods were used in a review of 10 interventions designed t o improve vaccination coverage in children, adolescents and adults. Ten ave rage costs and 14 cost-effectiveness ratios were abstracted or calculated f rom data reported in 24 studies and expressed in 1997 USD. The types of cos ts included in the analysis and intervention definitions varied extensively . Gaps in data were found for many interventions. Medical Subject Headings (MeSH): cost-effectiveness, costs, economic evalua tion, systematic reviews (C) 2000 American Journal of Preventive Medicine.