Design & Analysis of Clinical Trials for Economic Evaluation & Reimbursement

137Quality of Life in Economic Evaluation

Example 5.8: Computing a Short-Term QALY Gain:

Markov Model Set-Up

In this example, the primary end point is from a rheumatoid arthritis

trial. The trial was conducted as a double-blind trial with the primary

end point of a reduction in morning stiffness (MS) (Dunlop et al., 2013).

In this economic evaluation, the QALY was calculated at the population

level – that is, the QALY was generated after efcacy and HRQoL data

had been summarised.

The primary end point in the trial was dened as a change from base-

line in morning stiffness at week 12. This was derived as a mean score.

Since a Markov model (Chapter 6) was employed, the primary end point

needed to be classied into durations of MS. The classica ...