The choice of approach should be determined by a number of factors. Progression through the hierarchy relies on the availability of suitable information and data such that in many cases it may only be possible to complete the simple review of background information. However, it is also important that a decision to invest resources in completing one of the more advanced approaches should be made only with consideration of how valuable it is to the decision-maker to incorporate a particular equity consideration into the economic analysis. Or, to put it another way, how sensitive is a decision that was made on the basis of QALY maximization (or net benefit maximization methods) to the inclusion of equity considerations