Resources Repository
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ArticlePublication 2015Three Interventions That Reduce Childhood Obesity
Policy makers seeking to reduce childhood obesity must prioritize investment in treatment and primary prevention. …
Policy makers seeking to reduce childhood obesity must prioritize investment in treatment and primary prevention. The authors estimated the cost-effectiveness of seven interventions high on the obesity policy agenda: (1) a sugar-sweetened beverage excise tax, (2) elimination of the tax subsidy for advertising unhealthy food to children, (3) restaurant menu calorie labeling, (4) nutrition standards for school meals, (5) nutrition standards for all other food and beverages sold in schools, (6) improved early care and…
Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Economics/Finance | North America | Policy/Regulation | Child/Nutrition | Costing Methods | Health Systems | Clinical Care | Health/Medicine -
Tutorial/PrimerPublication, Teaching Resource 2015White Paper: Retrospective Benefit-Cost Analysis
In this article the authors consider how benefit-cost analysis can be used retrospectively to promote …
In this article the authors consider how benefit-cost analysis can be used retrospectively to promote understanding of the impacts after a policy is implemented. Serving as a brief primer, the authors propose that analysis can be useful for identifying needed reforms as well as in improving the conduct of future prospective analyses. The major challenges relate to estimating what would have occurred in the absence of the policy and separating the effects of the policy…
Benefit-Cost Analysis | Economics/Finance | North America | Policy/Regulation | Environmental Health | Priority Setting/Ethics | Social Determinants | Culture/Society | Government/Law | College | Graduate | Doctoral | Critical Thinking/Analysis | Policy Translation -
ArticlePublication 2015Extended Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Treatment and Prevention of Diarrhoea in Ethiopia
This article, published in BMJ Open, aims to illustrate the size and distribution of benefits …
This article, published in BMJ Open, aims to illustrate the size and distribution of benefits due to the treatment and prevention of diarrhoea (i.e., rotavirus vaccination) in Ethiopia. The authors use an economic model to examine the impacts of universal public finance (UPF) of diarrhoeal treatment alone, as opposed to diarrhoeal treatment along with rotavirus vaccination using extended cost-effectiveness analysis (ECEA). The study finds that diarrhoeal treatment paired with rotavirus vaccination is more cost effective…
Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Economics/Finance | Sub-Saharan Africa | Environmental Health | Child/Nutrition | Priority Setting/Ethics | Costing Methods | Health Outcomes | Infectious Diseases | Social Determinants | Health Systems | Climate/Environment | Health/Medicine -
ReviewPublication 2001Modeling for Health Care and Other Policy Decisions: Uses, Roles and Validity
This is a review article of the role of modeling approaches to guide decision making …
This is a review article of the role of modeling approaches to guide decision making in health care and other domains. The role of models to support recommendations on the cost-effective use of medical technologies and pharmaceuticals is controversial. At the heart of the controversy is the degree to which experimental or other empirical evidence should be required prior to model use. The authors argue that the controversy stems in part from a misconception that…
Technology Assessment | Economics/Finance | North America | Policy/Regulation | Environmental Health | Priority Setting/Ethics | Evidence Synthesis | Mathematical Models | Health Systems | Business/Industry | Climate/Environment | Energy/Engineering | Government/Law | Health/Medicine -
BookPublication 1980Clinical Decision Analysis
This text was conceived and developed in the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health …
This text was conceived and developed in the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health at the Center for the Analysis of Health Practices. The book had its origins in a set of classroom materials developed during the academic year 1974-75 for an elective course in medical decision making at the Harvard Medical School. In this book students are shown how to structure clinical decision problems, how to systematically formulate the intertwining roles of diagnosis and treatment, how to…
Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Decision Analysis | Economics/Finance | North America | Child/Nutrition | Probability/Bayes | Preferences/Values | Costing Methods | Health Outcomes | Test Performance | Value of Information | State-Transition | Infectious Diseases | Chronic Disease/Risk | Health/Medicine | Global | Europe | Graduate | Doctoral | Critical Thinking/Analysis | Decision Making/Leadership | Quantitative Literacy -
BookPublication 1978Swine Flu Affair: Decision-Making on a Slippery Disease
This report from the Institute of Medicine, The Swine Flu Affair: Decision-Making on a Slippery …
This report from the Institute of Medicine, The Swine Flu Affair: Decision-Making on a Slippery Disease, was written to review and critique the decisions made around the 1976 swine flu threat. In 1976, a small group of soldiers at Fort Dix were infected with a swine flu virus that was deemed similar to the virus responsible for the great 1918-19 world-wide flu pandemic. The U.S. government initiated an unprecedented effort to immunize every American against…
Risk Analysis | Decision Analysis | Science/Technology | North America | Policy/Regulation | Infectious Diseases | Health Systems | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2023Benefits and Costs of COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates
Written mid-pandemic, this article evaluates the direct costs and health benefits of requiring COVID-19 vaccinations …
Written mid-pandemic, this article evaluates the direct costs and health benefits of requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for U.S. federal employees and healthcare and private sector workers. These mandates were controversial and some were halted by litigation. If they had been implemented as intended, the net benefits would depend on the course of the pandemic. If a more transmissible variant (such as Omicron) emerges, the net benefits may be large. If the pandemic instead fades, the benefits…
Benefit-Cost Analysis | Economics/Finance | North America | Policy/Regulation | Mathematical Models | State-Transition | Infectious Diseases | Business/Industry | Government/Law | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2022Emerging Therapies for COVID-19: The Value of Information From More Clinical Trials
The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated time-sensitive policy and implementation decisions regarding new therapies in the face …
The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated time-sensitive policy and implementation decisions regarding new therapies in the face of uncertainty. This study aimed to quantify consequences of approving therapies or pursuing further research. The authors used a cohort state-transition model for hospitalized patients with COVID-19 to estimate quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) and costs associated with multiple drug regimens and usual care. For each they assessed immediate approval, use only in research, emergency use authorization or reject. They conducted cost-effectiveness…
Benefit-Cost Analysis | Economics/Finance | North America | Policy/Regulation | Value of Information | State-Transition | Infectious Diseases | Europe -
ArticlePublication 2013Nutritional Policy Changes in SNAP: A Microsimulation and Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
This analysis estimated the health effects and cost-effectiveness of banning or taxing sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) …
This analysis estimated the health effects and cost-effectiveness of banning or taxing sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) or subsidizing fruits and vegetables purchased with SNAP. The target population was adults in the U.S. and the time horizon was 10 years. Results showed that banning SSB purchases using SNAP benefits would be expected to avert 510,000 diabetes person-years and 52,000 deaths from MIs and strokes over the next decade, with a savings of $2900 per QALY saved. A…
Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Economics/Finance | North America | Policy/Regulation | Mathematical Models | Microsimulation | Chronic Disease/Risk | Food/Agriculture | Government/Law | Health/Medicine