PMC9 30 YEARS OF COST-EFFECTIVENESS ANALYSES: A BIBLIOMETRIC REVIEW OF ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN THE ECONOMIC AND MEDICAL LITERATURE: 1976--2005

Cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) presenting a cost/QALY ratio is
considered the gold standard for economic evaluations in health
care. Despite the proliferation of CEA research, there has been no
detailed study focusing on the bibliometric properties of this
literature. To describe and analyze trends in publications and
co-authorship in the CEA literature from 1976–2005. We used
the Tufts-New England Medical Center registry of original CEAs
published through 2005 http://www.tufts-nemc.org/cearegistry/).
For each article we recorded the year of publication, journal’s
name, the number of contributing authors and their names.
Authors were assigned a credit based on their perceived contribution to the study (1 credit point for the first and last authors,
1
/2 point for the second author, and 1/n credit points for all other
authors). We calculated the Author’s Contribution Index (ACI),
by dividing the total credit points by the number of studies
published by the same author. Approximately 1150 studies have
been published in 360 journals over the past 30 years, with an
increase in the number published annually from 18(26) in
1976–2000 to 138(46) in 2001–2005, p < 0.0001. The mean
number of contributing authors was 4.6(2.4) and increased
from 4.3(2.3) to 4.8(2.5), p < 0.0001 over that same time
interval. Medical journals were characterized by a higher number
of co-authors, as compared with the economic and health policy
literature: 4.7(2.4) vs. 4.2(2.1), p = 0.004. The lowest
number of co-authors (3.6) was in Value in Health and Medical
Decision Making, and the highest in Circulation (7.7). The most
prolific authors were affiliated with Harvard and Tufts Universities. CONCLUSIONS: The CEA literature continues to proliferate. Co-authorship trends seem to follow the rapid increase in the
mean number of authors found in the health economics and
medical literature. Further research is needed to examine journals’ and authors’ concentration trends, and dissemination of
CEA results.