A qualidade das evidências e as recomendações sobre a incorporação de medicamentos no Sistema Único de Saúde: uma análise retrospectiva Evidence quality and recommendations on medicine coverage in the Brazilian Public Health System: a retrospective analysis Calidad de la evidencia y las recomendaciónes para inclusión de medicamentos en el Sistema Único de Salud Brasileño: un análisis restrospectivo

The management and incorporation processes for technologies into the Brazilian Public Health System (SUS) are supported by specific knowledge from the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) area. The objective of this study was to estimate the factors associated with the quality of evidence and its relationship with the recommendations regarding the incorporation of drugs issued by the National Committee for Health Technology Incorporation (Conitec). Therefore, the relationship between potential quality predictors regarding the evidence presented in the reports was analyzed, together with the relationship to the recommendations issued by Conitec during the period of 2012-2015. The bivariate analyses suggest that the indication of a rare disease, the external origin of the demand, and the year of the report are all potential predictors of a low quality of evidence. In the model adjusted by the budget impact and the year of recommendation, the low quality of evidence shows a chance approximately four times greater of receiving a nonfavorable recommendation from Conitec (ORadjusted: 4.33; IC95%: 1.26 to 14.93, p < 0.05). The results show the importance and consistency of the quality evaluation of evidence regarding recommendation about the incorporation of drugs into the SUS.