This work was undertaken within a cancer research programme. It used as a case example a hypothetical cancer intervention in New Zealand to examine the impact of using ethnic-specific (Māori and non-Māori) data in cost-utility analyses for three cancers (lung, female breast, and colon cancer). For each cancer, the researchers modelled a hypothetical treatment that reduces the excess mortality due to the cancer by 20% for both Māori and non-Māori. For each of the three cancers, including existing inequalities in background parameters (population mortality and co-morbidities) for Māori attributed less value to a year of life saved compared with non-Māori, lowered the relative health gains for Māori, and therefore increased the resulting cost-effectiveness ratio (making the intervention appear less cost-effective). In contrast, ethnic inequalities in cancer parameters had less predictable effects. Despite excess mortality rates for Māori being higher for all three case study cancers, modelled health gains for Māori were lower from the lung cancer intervention than for non-Māori but higher for the breast and colon interventions.
