Health-economic modelling for diabetes mellitus

In recent years health economic evaluation has gained considerable importance, also in the field of diabetes mellitus. There are a great number of decision-analytic models which are used to estimate the consequences of various intervention strategies. The aim of this article is to facilitate understanding of diabetes models. The main features of decision-analytic modelling and its use in diabetes mellitus are explained. The most basic model types, i.e. the decision tree, the Markov model and the discrete event simulation are described and differences between cohort simulation and microsimulation are explained. Furthermore, types of uncertainty in decision analysis modelling and ways to handle these are presented and specific features of the complex diabetes modelling are highlighted. Cooperation between clinicians and modellers is an important prerequisite for adequate construction and use of modelling approaches.