Cost effectiveness
hip complaints, Productivity loss calculations, pain
The economic evaluation was conducted in collaboration with the Patient Centered Health Technology Assessment Unit of UMCG. The aim was to obtain a first impression of the direct and indirect costs of postoperative care incurred in each of the two countries, since no pertinent data were previously available in the literature.Direct costs post-treatment resulted from expenditures within the scope of care at the hospital, postoperative medical rehabilitation, other care providers (general practitioner, orthopedic technician, social worker), transportation, assistance at home, and other additional costs for the patients (over-the-counter medication, therapeutic services, remodeling measures). Indirect costs resulted from lost productivity due to incapacity for work.Information on resource consumption was collected via a patient self-reported questionnaire, which is a generally accepted concept. Using this instrument, questions were asked about frequency and duration of medical visits and rehabilitation, use of therapeutic services, household chores, extra expenses incurred due to the hip complaints (e.g., for pain medication), time to return to work, extent of employment, need for professional retraining.The monetary values on the Dutch side were obtained from the Dutch cost manual [Productivity loss calculations followed the human capital approach, where missed working hours were multiplied by the respective hourly productivity costs over a time horizon of six months. Basis for the calculation of lost working time (in hours) was the number of working hours per week reported by each patient in the aforementioned questionnaire and the time of their return to work.An overview of cost types, units and price per unit incurred in each country can be found in Additional file 