When you’re required to accomplish an economic review for class, make sure to carefully consider the reason why an economic review should be conducted. First of all, its number one goal is to find out what interventions properly work in order to reduce a certain burden.
In order to complete an informative economic review, one should take certain steps. Our economic review guide is going to outline them for you below:
Set Inclusion Criteria
It is important to make use of intervention and population characteristic criteria from the review of a broader nature. Plus, make sure to take into consideration the information source such as the language of publication, its type and high income economies.
Perform a Thorough Literature Search
Make use of the economic key words such as cost-utility, benefit, cost-effectiveness, etc. Surf the databases that are specialized in economics. For instance, you will get some great help from sources like Campbell Cochrane Economic Evaluation and EconLit. Besides, it is recommended to take a look at the repositories of institutions like National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.
Review More Complex Studies
Conducting a detailed research before the actual process of writing, make sure to approach the studies performed by the experts. This will provide you with an opportunity to see differences in opinions of experts within a particular area, as well as to properly weigh them up.
Rate Every Study
Before doing so, ensure to take into account only the studies that have satisfactory or better rates. It is important to base your quality rating on the following performance categories: benefit measurements, design, analysis, cost and effects. Make sure to assign every study with special marks, such as: unsatisfactory, satisfactory, good and very good.
Tabulate Your Results
In order to perform the conversion of the estimates from foreign studies to the United States dollars, make sure to use the PPP or the purchasing power parities. Also, incorporate the inflation effect with help of the CPIs or the Consumer Price Indexes for services and general goods, as well as for medical care. Consider the notion that benefits appear to be more desirable at the moment rather than in the future through the process of discounting.
Provide Summary Conclusions
If possible, make sure to produce summary economic estimates all over the studies. Provide your own conclusions on the economic attractiveness of interventions on the basis of the economic evidence weight.
Include Discussions
Provide the description of differences in methods and materials across the studies that are being investigated. Ensure to detect variables to which the summary results are especially sensitive and that are most likely to transform in case the intervention is being applied in predictable and specialized situations.
This concludes our economic review guide, finally, when dealing with the economic review, the crucial part is to identify gaps in the middle of economic literature, as well as not forgetting to suggest potential options for the future research.