– Technical Notes on Diagnostic Tests – Stata Programs Univariate And Multivariable Analyses Of Economic Outcomes

• Analysis plans for economic assessments should routinely include univariate and multivariable methods for analyzing the trial data • Univariate analyses are used for the predictors of economic outcomes – Demographic characteristics, clinical history, length of stay, and other resource use before entry of study subjects into the trial • Univariate and multivariable analyses should be used for the economic outcome data – Total costs, hospital days, quality-adjusted life years 2Cost Data 101 • Common feature of cost data is right-skewness (i.e., long, heavy, right tails) • Data tend to be skewed because: – Can not have negative costs – Most severe cases may require substantially more services than less severe cases – Certain events, which can be very expensive, occur in a relatively small number of patients • A minority of patients are responsible for a high proportion of health care cost