The updated Consolidated Health Economics Evaluation Reporting Standards, CHEERS 2022, is considered the most comprehensive publication to assess reporting quality of economic evaluations (EEs) incorporating criteria of trial- and model-based studies, including emerging methods. However, it holds multiple criteria per item without clear decision rules on minimum requirements for complete reporting, which introduces subjectivity. The purpose of this study is to present the CHEERS framework, based on CHEERS 2022, a tool which enables an objective yet comprehensive quality appraisal of EEs.MethodThe framework was developed by translating the CHEERS 2022 explanations into decision rules, adding Boolean operators to separate multiple criteria as well as highlight decision options. Some decision rules were supported by defining “minimal” and “comprehensive” requirements. Piloting occurred during the development process and in two complete systematic literature reviews afterwards. A scoring method and traffic light visualisation was developed to indicate the comprehensiveness of reporting.ResultsA framework for the objective and comprehensive appraisal of quality of economic evaluations in systematic literature reviews translating the guidance of CHEERS 2022 into 67 subitems with clear instructions on decision rules is provided. A traffic-light visualisation indicates degree of fulfillment at article and item level. A summary score in percentage of complete fulfillment of all criteria can be calculated at article-level.Discussion and conclusionThe framework has been applied in two systematic literature reviews, including reviews on dementia and frailty. The scoring and visualisation method facilitates comparisons across reviews and identifies quality gaps across
Zenker et al. (Mon,) studied this question.