Dear Statalisters,
I would kindly ask You for Your opinion about he folowing issue:
_ I am dealing with a 25-year open-cohort epidemiological model aimed at
comparing 2 different treatment (prevention = group A; therapy = group B;
- each year a 2,ooo new patients feed the model up (that is, 2,000 patients
for 25 years=50,000 patient for A and for B, respectively);
- no deaths or lost are considered;
_ patients may (or may not) convert to a X diseases during the 25-year
spell;
- aims of the model:
--calculate difference in terms of cases of disease X for A and B;
--cost and Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) (see Drummond et al. Economic
Evaluation of Health Care Programmes. 3rd edition. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2006) for each patient enrolled in A and B from the date of enrolment
to the end of the model (that is until the 25th year);
_ no matter when patient converts (or doesn't convert)costs and QALYs
accrued for each patient are calculated until the 25 year (that is, until
the end of the model);
- my problem: since patient enter in the model in different years, I would
think to calculate with Stata 9/2 st function the person-time and the
following IRR for disease X for treatment A and B.
However, I am not sure what is the right time person-calculation. Is it
(date of conversion -date of enrolment, if conversion occurs) or is it (25th
year of the model-date of enrolment)??
Any hints would be highly appreciated. Thanks a lot for Your Kindness and
for Your Time.
Kind Regards,
Carlo
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