Journal article
Using CART to Identify Thresholds and Hierarchies in the Determinants of Funding Decisions
Chris Schilling, Duncan Mortimer, Kim Dalziel
MEDICAL DECISION MAKING | SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC | Published : 2017
Abstract
There is much interest in understanding decision-making processes that determine funding outcomes for health interventions. We use classification and regression trees (CART) to identify cost-effectiveness thresholds and hierarchies in the determinants of funding decisions. The hierarchical structure of CART is suited to analyzing complex conditional and nonlinear relationships. Our analysis uncovered hierarchies where interventions were grouped according to their type and objective. Cost-effectiveness thresholds varied markedly depending on which group the intervention belonged to: lifestyle-type interventions with a prevention objective had an incremental cost-effectiveness threshold of ..
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Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
This work was supported by Monash University and University of Melbourne, as well as a postdoctoral scholarship from the National Health and Medical Research Council for CS (APP1093229). The work was completed at Monash University and the University of Melbourne. The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. Financial support for this study was provided in part by a contract with Monash University and in part by a postdoctoral grant for Schilling from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council. The funding agreement ensured the authors' independence in designing the study, interpreting the data, writing, and publishing the report. Revision accepted for publication 4 February 2016.