Skip to main content
Log in

The Use of the Bootstrap Statistical Method for the Pharmacoeconomic Cost Analysis of Skewed Data

  • Leading Article
  • Bootstrap Statistical Method
  • Published:
PharmacoEconomics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Summary

In pharmacoeconomics, the comparison of the costs of 2 different drugs used for the same treatment is of great interest. The problem is especially challenging when the drugs are likely to produce costly adverse effects in a small number of patients, which is often the case. The data are then skewed and traditional statistical methods to analyse the difference in the mean costs produced by 2 treatments may be inappropriate. The bootstrap method is presented as an alternative approach. A pharmacoeconomic cost-analysis example is presented and used throughout this article.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Coyle D. Statistical analysis in pharmacoeconomic studies: a review of current issues and standards. Pharmacoeconomics 1996; 9 (6): 506–16

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Hogg RV, Tanis EA. Probability and statistical inference. New York: Macmillan, 1988

    Google Scholar 

  3. Randles RH, Wolfe DA. Introduction to the theory of nonparametric statistics. New York: John Wiley, 1979

    Google Scholar 

  4. Zhou XH, Melfi CA, Hui SL. Methods for comparison of cost data. Ann Intern Med 1997; 127: 752–6

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Scheffé H. The analysis of variance. New York: John Wiley, 1959

    Google Scholar 

  6. Gold MR, Siegel JE, Russell LB, et al. Cost-effectiveness in health and medicine. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996

    Google Scholar 

  7. Chaudhary MA, Stearns SC. Estimating confidence intervals for cost-effectiveness ratios: an example from a randomized trial. Stat Med 1996; 15 (13): 1447–58

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Efron B, Tibshirani RJ. An introduction to the bootstrap. New York: Chapman and Hall, 1993

    Google Scholar 

  9. Hall P. The bootstrap and edgeworth expansion. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1992

    Google Scholar 

  10. Robert CP. The Bayesian choice, a decision-theoretic motivation. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1994

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alain Desgagné.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Desgagné, A., Castilloux, AM., Angers, JF. et al. The Use of the Bootstrap Statistical Method for the Pharmacoeconomic Cost Analysis of Skewed Data. Pharmacoeconomics 13, 487–497 (1998). https://doi.org/10.2165/00019053-199813050-00002

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.2165/00019053-199813050-00002

Keywords

Navigation