Using the National Neonatal Research Database to inform economic evaluations of neonatal interventions

Background: Computerised record linkage with EPRs is increasingly considered a means of obtaining primary or complementary resource use data for the purposes of health economic evaluation and more broadly for health technology assessments. We addressed whether or not reliable trial-based economic evaluations can be conducted utilising data from the NNRD.Methods: The Probiotic in Preterm babies Study (PiPS)(a multicentre, double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomised trial in infants born between 23+ 0 and 30+ 6 weeks gestational age) was used as the test bed. Health-care resource utilisation data were extracted from the PiPS trial case report forms (CRFs), the NNRD and a combined data source, and were primarily valued using national tariffs for 2012–13. 336 Differences in economic outcomes were estimated (1) within trial by data source, thereby allowing us to draw comparisons between the …