Table 4 Incremental costs, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness (with ‘provisionally included’ code option)
| Â | Safety first | Double screening | Single screening | Single screening with text mining | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Resource use and costs—research staff | ||||||||||||
Resource use item | Time (min) | Unit cost (£) | Cost (£) | Time (min) | Unit cost (£) | Cost (£) | Time (min) | Unit cost (£) | Cost (£) | Time (min) | Unit cost (£) | Cost (£) |
 Teleconferences to establish inter-rater reliability | 1200 | 1.175 | 1410 | 1200 | 1.175 | 1410 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
 Title-abstract screening | 24,954 | 1.175 | 29,321 | 24,954 | 1.175 | 29,321 | 12,477 | 0.97 | 12,103 | 4504 | 0.97 | 4369 |
 Teleconferences to resolve disagreements about title-abstract eligibility (coding) decisions | – | – | – | 5420 | 1.175 | 6371 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
 Full-text retrieval | 10,000 | 0.97 | 9700 | 8820 | 0.97 | 8555 | 9584 | 0.97 | 9296 | 7684 | 0.97 | 7453 |
 Full-text screening | 25,000 | 1.175 | 29,375 | 22,050 | 1.175 | 26,016 | 23,960 | 1.175 | 28,153 | 19,210 | 1.175 | 22,572 |
 Teleconferences to resolve disagreements about full-text eligibility (coding) decisions | 2950 | 1.175 | 3466 | 2950 | 1.175 | 3466 | 2950 | 1.175 | 3466 | 2950 | 1.175 | 3466 |
Total cost | £73,272 | £75,139 | £53,018 | £37,860 | ||||||||
Incremental cost | £35,412 | £37,279 | £15,158 | – | ||||||||
Effectiveness—number of inappropriate exclusions avoided | ||||||||||||
 Recall | 100 % | 100 % | 99 % | 95 % | ||||||||
 Number of eligible studies identified | 169 | 169 | 168 | 161 | ||||||||
Incremental effectiveness | 8 | 8 | 7 | – | ||||||||
Cost-effectiveness—incremental cost per inappropriate exclusion avoided (ICER) | ||||||||||||
Base case | £4427 | £4660 a | £2165 | – | ||||||||
 Sensitivity analysis 1a | £2867 | £3100a | £1613 | – | ||||||||
 Sensitivity analysis 1b | £5986 | £6219a | £2718 | – | ||||||||
 Sensitivity analysis 2a | £4008 | £4438a | £1767 | – | ||||||||
 Sensitivity analysis 2b | £4852 | £4855a | £2564 | – | ||||||||
 Sensitivity analysis 3a | £4427 | £4262b | £2358 | – | ||||||||
 Sensitivity analysis 3b | £4427 | £5058a | £2358 | – | ||||||||
 Sensitivity analysis 4a | £2213 | £2330a | £1179 | – | ||||||||
 Sensitivity analysis 4b | £4274 | £4624a | £832 | – | ||||||||