APPRAISE (EEs) page 44 of 85
Answer 4

4 How were the costs measured?

Answer: the statin cost was calculated as the quantity of actual use multiplied by its unit retail price. The costs of hospitalisations were considered separately for the year of the event and for subsequent years. The cost of productivity loss was based on the proportion at work and was estimated as difference of productivity before a coronary event and after a coronary event.

Relevant extracts from the abstract are higlighted in red:

The estimated annual cost of the drug was based on the actual consumption of simvastatin by the members of the treatment group in the 4S trial and on the official retail price of the drug.....

To estimate the direct costs, we estimated the extra costs incurred through hospitalizations for cardiovascular causes per patient-year during the first year after a coronary event and those during the second and subsequent years....

The difference between labor production per patient-year before a coronary event and after the event was estimated for the patients in the 4S placebo group who had nonfatal events.....
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