A scoping review of evaluation and acceptability criteria for the accuracy of cost estimates in health economic evaluations

Health economic evaluation provides clinical and economic evidence on a given health care technology to make informed health decisions. Economic evaluation studies generate cost estimates using different methodologies and perspectives, depending on the country of the evaluation. There is an increased need for transferable cost data between jurisdictions when inputting missing cost items. Thus, it seems crucial to evaluate the validity and accuracy of the generated cost predictions. This scoping review aims to identify guidelines and criteria used to accept the accuracy of cost estimates in health economic literature. A PubMed search returned 655 hits, of which 28 fulfilled inclusion criteria. Study characteristics were extracted, and accuracy evaluation tools were retrieved. Descriptive analysis was performed on the included studies. Different tools, ranging from simple statistical analysis to guidelines and checklists, were retrieved. Most of the of the included studies reported performing multiple accuracy evaluations using different approaches. The tools varied methodologically, and no standard approach was identified.