Health economic evaluation in mental health services research.Methodological basics and innovative approaches

摘要

Background. Despite the growing importance of health economic analysis in mental health services research recent methodological developments in this field are widely disregarded in Germany.Methods. Innovative approaches of cost-effectiveness analysis will be presented and its application in mental health service research will be demonstrated.Results. The interpretation of cost-effectiveness ratios on the background of the cost-effectiveness plane, the problem of variance estimation for the iCER, the application of bootstrapping methods for the assessment of confidence limits and the interpretation ofthe cost-effectiveness acceptability curve will be demonstrated. As an alternative method to the use of incremental cost-effectiveness ratios the net benefit approach will be presented.Conclusions. The advantageous characteristics of the net benefit approach increase the applicability of health economic analysis in mental health service research.