Table 5 Incremental costs, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness (without ‘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 | 4863 | 0.97 | 4717 |
 Teleconferences to resolve disagreements about title-abstract eligibility (coding) decisions | – | – | – | 5400 | 1.175 | 6345 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
 Full-text retrieval | 9932 | 0.97 | 9634 | 8752 | 0.97 | 8489 | 9524 | 0.97 | 9238 | 7876 | 0.97 | 7640 |
 Full-text screening | 24,830 | 1.175 | 29,175 | 21,880 | 1.175 | 25,709 | 23,810 | 1.175 | 27,977 | 19,690 | 1.175 | 23,136 |
 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 | £73,006 | £74,740 | £52,784 | £38,959 | ||||||||
Incremental cost | £34,047 | £35,781 | £13,825 | – | ||||||||
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 | £4256 | £4473 a | £1975 | – | ||||||||
 Sensitivity analysis 1a | £2718 | £2935a | £1447 | – | ||||||||
 Sensitivity analysis 1b | £5794 | £6010a | £2502 | – | ||||||||
 Sensitivity analysis 2a | £3878 | £4187a | £1629 | – | ||||||||
 Sensitivity analysis 2b | £4633 | £4634a | £2321 | – | ||||||||
 Sensitivity analysis 3a | £4256 | £4076b | £1975 | – | ||||||||
 Sensitivity analysis 3b | £4278 | £4892a | £2001 | – | ||||||||
 Sensitivity analysis 4a | £2128 | £2236a | £987 | – | ||||||||
 Sensitivity analysis 4b | £6384 | £6709a | £2962 | – | ||||||||
 Sensitivity analysis 5a | £4276 | £4493a | £1998 | – | ||||||||
 Sensitivity analysis 5b | £4287 | £4504a | £2013 | – | ||||||||