Quality assessment tools serve an important role in evaluating economic evaluations. This article showcases the first application of the Checklist for Health Economic Quality Evaluations (CHEQUE) tool in a systematic review setting and offers descriptive reflections on its use.
We applied CHEQUE to 21 diverse economic evaluations in a systematic review of medical education. We visualized weighted CHEQUE scores, calculate correlations between methods and reporting sections, and provided all data and R code for reuse in future applications. Finally, we provided a detailed overview of our judgments and alternative considerations of the checklist items, and suggestions for further development.
Scores ranged from 18% to 94% depending on the applied weighting method, with a positive correlation between the method and reporting quality. CHEQUE enables systematic and standardized assessment but may benefit from refinement in scoring clarity and burden reduction.
Our study provides insights for future guidance on applying and developing CHEQUE or similar tools in economic evaluation quality assessment.