[Calculation of standardised unit costs from a societal perspective for health economic evaluation]

Abstract

Purpose: Due to demographic aging, economic evaluation of health care technologies for the elderly becomes more important. A standardised questionnaire to measure the health-related resource utilisation has been designed. The monetary valuation of the resource use documented by the questionnaire is a central step towards the determination of the corresponding costs. The aim of this paper is to provide unit costs for the resources in the questionnaire from a societal perspective.

Methods: The unit costs are calculated pragmatically based on regularly published sources. Thus, an easy update is possible.

Results: This paper presents the calculated unit costs for outpatient medical care, inpatient care, informal and formal nursing care and pharmaceuticals from a societal perspective.

Conclusion: The calculated unit costs can serve as a reference case in health economic evaluations and hence help to increase their comparability.