AAAAI

American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology

AAI

adrenaline auto-injector

AG

Assessment Group

AR

adverse reaction

BOT

burden of treatment

CRD

Centre for Reviews and Dissemination

EAACI

European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology

EQ-5D

European Quality of Life-5 Dimensions

FS

field sting

HBV

honey bee venom

HDA

high-dose antihistamine

HES

hospital episode statistics

ICER

incremental cost-effectiveness ratio

IDT

intradermal skin testing

IgE

immunoglobulin E

IgG

immunoglobulin G

ITT

intention to treat

LLR

large local reaction

MCMC

Markov chain Monte Carlo

MTC

mixed-treatment comparison

N/A

not available

NA

not applicable

NICE

National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence

non-PhVIT

venom immunotherapy using non-Pharmalgen^® products

NR

not reported

PhVIT

venom immunotherapy using Pharmalgen^® products

PSSRU

Personal Social Services Research Unit

QALY

quality-adjusted life-year

QoL

quality of life

RAST

radioallergosorbent testing

RCT

randomised controlled trial

SC

sting challenge

SCIT

subcutaneous immunotherapy

SLIT

sublingual immunotherapy

SmPC

summary of product characteristics

SPT

skin prick testing

STAI

State-Trait Anxiety Inventory

VIT

venom immunotherapy

VQLQ

Vespid Allergy Quality of Life Questionnaire

WBE

whole bee extract

All abbreviations that have been used in this report are listed here unless the abbreviation is well known (e.g. NHS), or it has been used only once, or it is a non-standard abbreviation used only in figures/tables/appendices, in which case the abbreviation is defined in the figure legend or in the notes at the end of the table.