Economic analyses will be performed separately for
Australia and the Netherlands. For economic analyses, data regarding health care resource use (e.g. outpatient visits, hospitalisations and GP visits) will be retrospectively collected per individual patient. Self-reported data from diaries, a six month follow-up and a 12 month follow-up questionnaire will be cross-checked with information from GPs, pharmacists,
Medical Centres and medical records. In the Netherlands medication details for all patients will be retrospectively collected from the pharmacists. In Australia, data will be obtained from Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) utilisation data. In addition, unit costs will be derived from published data sets including PBS, MBS and Australian Refined Diagnosis Related Groups (AR-DRG) cost weights. In the Netherlands, an incremental cost-effectiveness analysis will be performed with Dutch unit costs derived from an extrapolation of the Australian unit cost data to The Netherlands.