Table 1 Description of types of economic evaluation studies

Partial economic evaluation

▪ Cost analysis: Compares the costs of alternative interventions.

▪ Cost of illness study: Identifies and measures the total costs attributable to a specific disease.

▪ Cost description: Examines the costs of a single intervention or programme (which can have multiple interventions).

▪ Outcome description: Examines only the consequences of a single intervention or programme.

Full economic evaluation

▪ Cost-minimization analysis (CMA): Comparison of costs (monetised) when there is proven evidence of equivalent effectiveness of the interventions or programs being compared.

▪ Cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA): Cost is monetised while effectiveness is measured in “natural units” such as life-years gained, lives saved.

▪ Cost-utility analysis (CUA): Cost is monetized while ‘effectiveness’ is measured as a utility such as Quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) or Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). Both QALYs and DALYs are composite metrics of length and quality of life.

▪ Cost benefit analysis (CBA): Costs and benefits are both monetised.