Health economics analysis has become increasingly important in recent years. It is essential to master the use of relevant software to conduct research in health economics. TreeAge Pro software is widely used in the healthcare decision analysis. It can carry out decision analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, and Monte Carlo simulation. With powerful functionlity and outstanding visualization, it can build Markov disease transition models to analyze Markov processes according to disease models and accomplish decision analysis with decision trees and influence diagrams. This paper introduces cost-effectiveness analysis based on Markov model with examples and explains the main graphs.
ObjectivesTo systematically review the efficacy and safety of Orlistat for obese patients with cardiovascular risk including hyperlipidemia, hypertension, diabetes and prediabetes.MethodsSinomed, CNKI, WanFang Data, PubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library and ClinicalTrails.gov databases were electronically searched to collect randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of Orlistat for obese patients with cardiovascular risk such as hyperlipemia, diabetes, prediabetes and hypertension from inception to Jan 7th, 2017. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data, and assessed the risk of bias of included studies. Then, meta-analysis was performed using Stata 14.0 software.ResultsA total of 28 RCTs were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that, compared with placebo, Orlistat could significantly reduce the weight (MD=–2.85, 95%CI –3.47 to –2.24, P=0.000), waist (MD=–2.45, 95%CI –3.07 to –1.83, P=0.000) and BMI (MD=–1.29, 95%CI –2.08 to –0.49, P=0.002) of patients. Orlistat could also control the blood pressure, blood glucose and other cardiovascular risk factors well. Compared with the blank control, Orlistat could improve the waist and parts of cardiovascular risk factors (P<0.05). The incidence of adverse events of Orlistat was slightly higher than that of placebo, but most could be self-healing.ConclusionsCurrent evidence shows that compared with placebo and blank control, Orlistat is effective for improving both weight loss and some cardiovascular risk factors. Due to limited quality and quantity of the included studies, more high quality studies are needed to verify above conclusion.
ObjectiveTo provide method references for data visualization of multiple linear regression analysis.MethodsAfter importing data to R Studio, this paper conducted general descriptive statistics analysis, then constructed a linear model between independent variables and the target. After checking independence of observations, the normality of the target, and the linearity between variables, this paper estimated coefficients of independent variables, dealt with multicollinearity, tested significance of estimates and performed residual analysis to guarantee that the regression met its assumptions, and eventually used the fitted model for prediction.ResultsThe multiple linear regression analysis implemented by R Studio software had better visualization functions and easier operation than traditional R language software.ConclusionsR Studio software has good application value in realizing multiple linear regression analysis data visualization.
ObjectiveTo systematically review the pharmacoeconomic studies of negotiated drugs in the Chinese National Reimbursement Drug List (NRDL). MethodsPubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library, CNKI and WanFang Data databases were electronically searched to collect the pharmacoeconomic studies of negotiated drugs in the Chinese NRDL from January 1, 2012 to January 1, 2022. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of included studies, then, the qualitative systematic review was performed. ResultsA total of 59 (33.9%) drugs were evaluated in 124 pharmacoeconomic studies. Only 23 (13.2%) drugs were evaluated in 29 (23.3%) pharmacoeconomic studies prior to the negotiation. Besides, 75 (60.5%) of the negotiated drugs were supported by evidence of economic superiority than the comparison. ConclusionThe pharmacoeconomic studies on drugs which listed in the NRDL is insufficient. Future pharmacoeconomic studies should perform to provide more substantial support for the national drug negotiations.
ObjectiveTo combine specific examples and R Studio language code, to apply the Bayesian quantile regression method in the analysis of clinical medicine data, and show the advantages of Bayesian quantile regression method, so as to provide references for improving the accuracy of medical research. Methods The clinical data of 250 patients with knee osteoarthritis from the capital special research on the application of clinical characteristics project were used. A Bayesian quantile regression model based on data set was constructed to explore the relationship between the level of serum IgG and the age of the patients. Results The Monte Carlo algorithm converge can judge the efficiency of parameter estimation based on Gibbs sampling which was used to draw samples from the posterior distribution of parameters in Bayesian quantile regression. By generating the parameter into the regression formula, we can obtain the regression under different quantiles: Y1=−6.022 063 47+2.026 913 73X−0.015 077 69X2……Y5=24.610 542 414−0.395 059 497X+0.004 205 064X2. It can be found that the serum level of IgG was obviously increased with age. Conclusion Bayesian quantile regression parameter estimation results are accurate and highly credible, and reliable parameter information can be obtained even under small sample conditions. It has great advantages in the research of clinical medicine data and has certain promotional value.
ObjectiveThis study aims to conduct a systematic review and quality assessment of published domestic and foreign studies on the pharmacoeconomics of Chinese patent medicines, with the goal of identifying relevant issues and proposing improvement suggestions. MethodsThe methods used in this study involved systematic searches of the CNKI, WanFang Data, VIP, and PubMed databases for domestic and foreign studies related to the pharmacoeconomics of Chinese patent medicines, with a search deadline of May 20, 2022. The studies were evaluated systematically based on various aspects such as title, year, author, journal, research perspective, research type, disease area, research object, research design type, research method, application model, model calibration, sensitivity analysis, cost calculation, effectiveness indicators, and adverse reaction comparison. The evaluation of report quality and methodological quality was conducted using the consolidated health economic evaluation reporting standards 2022 (CHEERS 2022) and the quality of health economic studies (QHES) tools, respectively. ResultsThis study included a total of 249 articles, including 247 in Chinese and 2 in English. The first article on the pharmacoeconomics of Chinese patent medicine was published in 2000. The diseases studied covered 59.26% of the ICD-11 disease areas. Articles reporting on the research perspective accounted for 16.87% of the total number of studies, while 32.4% of studies provided an explanation of the research type. The main method used was cost-effectiveness analysis, accounting for 86.75% of the studies, and the main cost component was direct medical costs, accounting for 89.56%. The primary effectiveness indicator was the overall effective rate, accounting for 78.31% of the studies. The average compliance rate with the CHEERS 2022 standard was 43.58%, and the average QHES score was 56.7. ConclusionA considerable part of the existing research on the pharmacoeconomics of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) suffers from problems such as the lack of research methods or non-standardized methods. Therefore, the relevant research abilities of researchers who conduct TCM pharmacoeconomic research need to be improved.