Result card

  • ECO6: What is the appropriate time horizon?
Abdominal Aorta Aneurysm Screening
E0007
English
Guidance Resources

What is the appropriate time horizon?

Authors: Suvi Mäklin, Taru Haula, Kristian Lampe, Jaana Leipälä, Ulla Saalasti-Koskinen

Internal reviewers: Aurora Llanos-Mendez, Sergio Marquez, Urs Brügger, Mark Pletscher, Iñaki Imaz, Sonia García Pérez

Acknowledgments: Information Specialist Jaana Isojärvi (FINOHTA/THL, Finland)

Abdominal aortic aneurysm is a life-threatening condition and AAA screening aims to detect aneurysms in the asymptomatic phase before risk of rupture. The screening and possible subsequent elective operations are potentially life-saving interventions. This means that the appropriate time horizon for the analysis is the expected lifetime of the screened population. The life expectancy of the 65-year-old population in Europe was estimated using EuroStat statistics (http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/table.do?tab=table&init=1&language=en&pcode=tsdde210&plugin=1).

Systematic literature review

The time horizon in the included studies was typically expected lifetime or 20 years or more. Few studies employed a time horizon of less than 10 years. Two included studies reported the same study, only one had a time horizon of 7 years and the other with a horizon of 10 years.

Modelling

In the base case analysis, the life expectancies of 65-year-old Finnish men and women were used: 17.5 and 21.5 years respectively. At the European level, the mean life expectancy for 65 year olds is 17.3 years for men and 20.9 years for women.

Critical
Partially
Mäklin S et al. Result Card ECO6 In: Mäklin S et al. Costs and economic evaluation In: Jefferson T, Vicari N, Frønsdal K [eds.]. Abdominal Aorta Aneurysm Screening [Core HTA], Agenzia nationale per i servizi sanitari regionali (age.na.s), Italy; 2013. [cited 28 May 2023]. Available from: http://corehta.info/ViewCover.aspx?id=106