Costs and quantities were not reported separately. The discount rate was 3% for the base case. Direct costs were based on the authors' assumptions that the cost of testing would fall to a fraction of current costs due to economies of scale. Health service costs were considered, including costs for: serum transferrin saturation test, serum ferritin determination, liver biopsy, treatment of bleeding due to liver biopsy, phlebotomy treatment, magnetic resonance imaging, treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma, treatment of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (per year), treatment of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (per year), hospitalization for congestive heart failure (last year of life) and liver transplantation. 1990 prices were used.
Costs data were derived from the published literature and from actual data (costs at local hospitals). Final costs were calculated using a decision analysis model.