Anthony O'Hagan, John W. Stevens and Jacques Montmartin
University of Sheffield, UK and Astra Zeneca, Loughborough, UK
Publication details: Statistics in Medicine 20, 733-753, 2001.
A key tool for assessing the relative cost-effectiveness of two treatments in health economics is the incremental C/E acceptability curve. We present Bayesian computations for the C/E acceptability curve in the case where data on both costs and efficacy are available from a clinical trial. Analysis is given under various formulations of prior information. A case study is analysed in which reasonable prior information is shown to substantially strengthen the posterior inference, leading to a more conclusive assessment of cost-effectiveness. Calculations can be performed using readily available Bayesian software.