A review of cost analysis in the nursing literature

비용분석 간호학 연구의 고찰

Purpose : The aim of this study is to review cost analysis methodological issues in the nursing literature. Method : The subjects of this study were articles published in Korea from 1961 to August, 2002. They were searched by key words 'cost' and 'nursing' from various DB(National Assembly Library, The National Library of Korea, RICH etc). Finally, 31 articles were collected. Results : 1) The major type of cost analysis was a cost comparison study. 2) The important methodological weaknesses were as followers: First, many studies did not describe a cost analysis framework or a cost analysis assumption. Second, a few studies described selection criteria of cost items and effectiveness items. Third, many studies did not do a sensitivity analysis. Conclusion : With these results, it will be possible to develop a more proper cost analysis methodological framework and also to make an evaluation criteria for cost analysis nursing study.