Guide to Analyzing the Cost-Effectiveness of Community Public Health Prevention Approaches

http://aspe.hhs.gov/health/reports/06/cphpa/report.pdf

INTRODUCTION
This guide provides practical advice to help program managers and evaluators understand,
design, and perform cost-effectiveness (CE) evaluations of community public health
prevention programs. Each chapter of the guide provides advice for addressing specific
components of a CE analysis. For example, Chapter 2 describes the planning process for CE
analysis and decisions about study design that must be made up front—prior to collecting or
analyzing cost or effectiveness data. Chapter 3 discusses issues that need to be considered
when selecting from among possible outcome measures for the prevention program.
Chapter 4 contains advice and tools for measuring program costs. Chapter 5 contains
instructions for performing a CE analysis and provides examples, and Chapter 6 answers the
question of how results from CE studies can be used by decision makers.
Throughout the guide, we have attempted to provide easy-to-follow instructions, advice,
and relevant examples to lead community program managers and evaluators through the
design and implementation of CE analysis. In the interest of brevity, the guide focuses on
common concerns about how best to design and perform CE analysis in a community
prevention setting that focuses on health promotion. For a more complete treatment of
issues surrounding CE analysis and related economic studies (e.g., cost-benefit, business
case analysis) in both clinical and community settings, we encourage readers to consult one
of the many texts available on economic evaluation as applied to public health or health
care. A list of such texts is provided in Appendix A. These texts are geared primarily toward
researchers and provide additional methodological details for conducting economic
evaluations of clinical or community prevention efforts. Examples of CE studies from the
literature are summarized in Appendix B.