Fan, Z., Si, X., Wang, Z. et al. (6 more authors) (2025) A systematic review and quality assessment of pharmacoeconomic publications for China compared to internationally: is the quality of evidence-base sufficient for health technology assessment? International Journal of Health Policy and Management. ISSN 2322-5939
Abstract
Background
To summarize the quality of pharmacoeconomic publications for China compared to internationally and to identify areas for improvement both from a China-specific and international perspective.
Methods
First, we conducted a systematic review of pharmacoeconomic publications for China, with subsequent reporting quality assessment based on the CHEERS checklist. Second, we conducted an umbrella review of pharmacoeconomic publications internationally which used a similar quality assessment. We extracted the CHEERS checklist scores for each study and converted them to percentages to facilitate comparison of results.
Results
CHEERS 2022 instrument was used to evaluate the quality of 154 pharmacoeconomic publications by Chinese scholars. Across these articles, the average quality score was 61.0%, indicating a moderate level of quality on average. There were 27 (17.5%) high quality articles, 85 moderate quality articles (55.2%) and 42 low quality (27.3%) articles. Out of 28 scoring items, those included in the methods section such as: Health economic analysis plan, Characterizing heterogeneity, Characterizing distributional effects, Approach to engagement with patients and others affected by the study, got low scores. In addition to the generally lower scores of international articles on items 9 (Time horizon), 18 (Characterizing heterogeneity) and 24 (Effect of uncertainty), Chinese articles also scored lower than international articles on items included in the methods and other relevant information section,e.g.Health economic analysis plan, Perspective, Discount rate, Analytics and assumptions, Characterizing distributional effects, Approach to engagement with patients and others affected by the study, Source of funding and Conflicts of interest.
Conclusion
The quality of China's pharmacoeconomic publications has been improving year by year since the establishment of the NHSA in 2018, but there is still a quality gap with similar international publications which requires further focus and improvement in study conduct and reporting standards for the evidence-base to be sufficient for HTA.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2025 The Author(s); Published by Kerman University of Medical Sciences. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | Quality Assessment; Health Technology Assessment; Pharmacoeconomics; Systematic Review; Umbrella Review; China |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health (Sheffield) > School of Medicine and Population Health |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 26 Mar 2025 09:40 |
Last Modified: | 26 Mar 2025 09:40 |
Status: | Published online |
Publisher: | Maad Rayan Publishing Company |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.34172/ijhpm.8656 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:224856 |