Unit costs in international economic evaluations: resource costing of the Schizophrenia Outpatient Health Outcomes Study

Objective: We present unit costs corresponding to resource information collected in the Schizophrenia Outpatient Health Outcomes (SOHO) Study. Method: The SOHO study is a 3-year, prospective, observational study of health outcomes associated with antipsychotic treatment in out-patients treated for schizophrenia. The study is being conducted across 10 European countries (Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the UK) and includes over 10 800 patients and over 1000 investigators. To identify the best available unit costs of hospital admissions, day care and psychiatrist out-patient visits, a tariff-based approach was used. Results: Unit costs were obtained for nine of the 10 countries and were adjusted to 2000 price levels by consumer price indices and converted to US$ using purchasing power parity rates (and on to €). Conclusion: The paper illustrates the need to balance the search for sound unit costs with pragmatic solutions in the costing of international economic evaluations.