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A Systematic Review on the Extent and Quality of Pharmacoeconomic Publications in Egypt

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Abstract

Background

Egypt faces many challenges when matching patient needs with available resources. Consequently, there has been an increasing interest in pharmacoeconomics as an aid tool in health decision-making to better allocate resources.

Objectives

To review and evaluate the volume and the quality of published pharmacoeconomic studies in Egypt.

Methods

A literature search was conducted in August 2018 using PubMed, Google Scholar, and Cochrane library to identify published Egyptian pharmacoeconomic studies. Articles were included if they were original economic studies, written and published in English, and conducted in Egypt. Each article was assessed independently by two reviewers using the 100-point Quality of Health Evaluation Studies (QHES) scale.

Results

Fifteen studies published between 2002 and 2017 were included in the review. Most of them were cost-effectiveness analyses (60%). The minority used secondary data (33.3%) or adopted modeling techniques (40%). The mean QHES score of the included studies was 70.1 ± 21.8, and approximately 40% of them had a QHES score of more than 80.

Conclusion

Pharmacoeconomic evaluations in Egypt are still in their infancy. The Egyptian guidelines for economic evaluation should be adopted and the EQ-5D-5L value sets should be developed to increase the quality of economic research.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the help of E. Said, S. Al Shabasy, A. Abdel Magid, A. Ali, MSc, and Z. Elsisi, BSc, teaching assistants in the Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Cairo University, Egypt, in the study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clinical Pharmacy Department, Faculty of Pharmacy, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt

    Samar Farid

  2. ISPOR Egypt’s Chapter, Cairo, Egypt

    Mahmoud Elmahdawy

  3. Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics, Bournemouth University, Fern Barrow, Poole, Dorset, BH12 5BB, UK

    Darin Baines

Authors
  1. Samar Farid
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  2. Mahmoud Elmahdawy
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  3. Darin Baines
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Darin Baines.

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Funding

No source of funding was used for this review.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Electronic supplementary material

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Supplementary material 1 (PDF 140 kb)

Appendix

Appendix

1.1 List of Keywords Used in the Literature Review

The following keywords used alone and in different combinations were employed in the literature review:

  • Pharmacoeconomics

  • Economic evaluation

  • Health Economics

  • Cost

  • Effectiveness

  • Cost effectiveness

  • Cost-minimization

  • Cost-utility

  • Cost–benefit

  • Egypt

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Farid, S., Elmahdawy, M. & Baines, D. A Systematic Review on the Extent and Quality of Pharmacoeconomic Publications in Egypt. Clin Drug Investig 39, 157–168 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40261-018-0730-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40261-018-0730-5

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