Background: Prenatal screening in pregnancy for fetal abnormalities, including trisomy 21, has become increasingly common in many countries. Several economic studies on the subject have already been published. However, the methodology of the economic evaluations has been relatively incoherent leading to poor utilization of the results by both clinicians and health care decision-makers. This has enabled potentially inefficient use of unavoidably scarce health care resources.

Objectives: To review systematically the methodological quality of published economic evaluations of prenatal screening for trisomy 21. Particular emphasis will be given to used outcome measures and included cost factors.

Methods: A structured search of relevant electronic databases will be conducted to identify published economic studies on prenatal screening for trisomy 21. All complete economic evaluations on the subject will be included in the review. For all of the included studies, the elements of sound economic evaluation methods will be appraised using a checklist constructed by Drummond et al (1997).

Results: A pilot search in MEDLINE has been carried out, in which altogether 95 papers were identified. The next stage is to expand the search to other electronic databases. Hand searches of relevant material will also be performed. All articles found to be relevant or potentially relevant will be obtained and reviewed in full by two independent reviewers.

References:Drummond MF, O´Brien B, Stoddard GL & Tortance GW (1997). Methods for the Economic Evaluation of Health Care Programmes, 2nd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.