Incorporating economic evidence in systematic reviews: A methodology study
Project Overview
The JBI guideline for systematic reviews of economic evidence (SR-EE) was last updated in 2014. Previous guidelines developed by leading organizations and expert collaborations have provided guidance on conducting SR-EE. However, these have not incorporated newer methods such as the use of equity considerations in cost-effectiveness analysis [Distributional Cost Effectiveness Analysis (DCEA)/Extended Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (ECEA)], return on investment (ROI)/social return on investment (SROI), and the use of system dynamic models and agent-based models. Additionally, there are applications of meta-analysis of resource use, costs, health state utility values (SUVs), and growing use of comparative efficiency research methodology for the statistical combination of study-level estimates of cost-effectiveness extracted from multiple economic evaluations, i.e. meta-analysis of economic evaluation studies (MAEEs).
In 2024, the Integrated Full Systematic Review of Economics Evidence (IFSREE) guideline was published as a technical supplement to the updated Cochrane Handbook. However, this guideline focuses solely on integrating economic evidence within intervention reviews. In 2021, ISPOR published a critical appraisal method focusing on systematic reviews with cost and cost-effectiveness outcomes (SR-CCEO).
Therefore, more detailed and up-to-date guidance on preparing SR-EEs for use by researchers and guidance developers is warranted. Against this backdrop, this project aims to update the guidance for JBI systematic reviews of economic evidence to include broad, inclusive, and novel methods and approaches by June 2027.
The project outputs will aid systematic reviewers in answering questions such as:
- What guidelines assist in preparing a systematic review of economic evidence (SR-EE)?
- How do I develop a search strategy and find validated ones?
- Which bibliographic databases should I explore?
- Which risk of bias checklists are appropriate?
- How do I formulate clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) recommendations based on EEs?
- How do I perform systematic reviews on costs, return on investment (ROI)/social return on investment (SROI)?
- How do I use modelling methods like agent-based or system dynamic models in SR-EEs?
- How to conduct umbrella reviews of economic evidence in public health?
- How to perform meta-analysis in economic evaluations (MA-EEs) in clinical and public health SR-EEs?
Project Team
Prof (Dr) Denny John
Principal Investigator
Senior Fellow
Dr Chandrasekhar Janakiraman
Co-Investigator
Director, JBI Centre for Excellence in Oral Health, India
Research Team
Dr Anjitha Krishna
Senior Researcher
Dr Aparna Ramchandran
Research Associate
Prof (Dr) Arunkumar Namachivayam
Medical Statistics