Incremental net benefit in the analysis of economic data from clinical trials, with application to the CADET-Hp Trial

In clinical trials it has become increasingly common for cost data to be collected in addition to data on clinical effectiveness. In response to this, new statistical methodology has been developed. Initially, efforts were focused on the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio, but as the problems with ratio statistics became apparent, attention was switched to incremental net benefit. In this paper statistical methods based on an incremental net benefit approach are given and illustrated with an example from the gastrointestinal literature. The relationship between incremental net benefit and incremental cost-effectiveness is emphasized.