Appraisal of: "Arber M, Garcia S, Veale T, Edwards M, Shaw A, Glanville JM. Performance of Ovid MEDLINE search filters to identify health state utility studies. Int J Technol Assess Health Care. 2017 Jan;33(4);472-80."
The retrieval of studies that report health state utility values (HSUVs) is an important aspect of information retrieval for HTA and economic model production. This study first assessed three MEDLINE search filters designed by the York Health Economic Consortium (YHEC) to identify studies reporting HSUVs. The relative recall method was used to test the sensitivity of each filter. Three quasi gold standard (QSG) sets of relevant studies were compiled from reviews of studies reporting HSUVs. The first QSG (consisting of 294 records) was used to assess the performance of the three initial filters. The best performing of the three filters was further developed using the second QSG (139 records). Ultimately, three final search filters were validated using the third QSG (139 records). The first final search filter is sensitivity maximizing, with 95% sensitivity and a number needed to read (NNR) of 842. The second filter balances sensitivity and precision, and has a 92% sensitivity with an NNR of 502. The third filter is precision maximizing, with 88% sensitivity and an NNR of 383. Real world volume of retrieved records was also tested to illustrate the impact of using the three filters for three example health conditions. Having a range of sensitivity and precision options allows researchers to choose filters based on their search requirements. The authors believe that these are the first validated filters for retrieving HSURs. Search strategies for all three final filters are presented in the article.