Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards (CHEERS) statement

Area of Science:

• Health Economics
• Medical Research Reporting

Background:

• Reporting economic evaluations of health interventions presents significant challenges.
• Existing guidelines require consolidation and user-friendly updates.
• Medical editors identified a need for improved reporting standards.

Purpose of the Study:

• To consolidate and update previous health economic evaluation guidelines.
• To provide current, useful reporting guidance for researchers and reviewers.
• To enhance the quality of health economic evaluations.

Main Methods:

• Systematic review to identify candidate reporting items.
• Modified Delphi panel with diverse stakeholder representation (academia, industry, government, editors).
• Development of a 24-item checklist and recommendations based on 44 candidate items.

Main Results:

• A consolidated set of 24 recommendations for health economic evaluation reporting.
• A user-friendly checklist derived from the recommendations.
• Co-publication across multiple journals to facilitate dissemination.

Conclusions:

• The CHEERS statement provides comprehensive guidance for reporting health economic evaluations.
• Implementation of CHEERS is expected to improve reporting standards and health decision-making.
• The checklist will be reviewed for updates in five years.