This study assumed that treatment adjustments happen at 3-month intervals. The time to control the level of blood pressure varies depending on a patient’s risk factors: for convenience, it was assumed that the defined time cycle coincided with the unit of time that allows drug switching. As a maximum of three drug switches (four drugs in a sequential treatment strategy) were allowed in the short-term drug switching model, the total drug switching period was one year.
The long-term CVD model calculated the costs and effectiveness over a lifetime horizon after a CV event or DM happens during the drug switching period or the end of the drug switching period. The cycle length was set to one year after the drug switching period to reduce the computational time in the long-term CVD model.
