Resources Repository
-
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…
Economics/Finance | Policy/Regulation | Clinical Care | Costing Methods | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Child/Nutrition | Health Systems | Health/Medicine | North America -
ArticlePublication 2015Population Health Model (POHEM): An Overview
This paper provides an overview of the rationale, methodology and applications of the Population Health …
This paper provides an overview of the rationale, methodology and applications of the Population Health Model (POHEM). POHEM is a health microsimulation model, developed at Statistics Canada in the early 1990s. The authors describe that POHEM draws together rich multivariate data from a wide range of sources to simulate the lifecycle of the Canadian population, specifically focusing on aspects of health. The model dynamically simulates individuals’ disease states, risk factors, and health determinants, in order…
Economics/Finance | Policy/Regulation | Clinical Care | Costing Methods | Evidence Synthesis | Mathematical Models | Microsimulation | Calibration/Validation | Chronic Disease/Risk | Health Systems | Health/Medicine | North America -
ArticlePublication 2015Universal Public Finance of Tuberculosis Treatment in India: An Extended CEA
This paper evaluates the consequences of universal public finance (UPF) for tuberculosis treatment in India …
This paper evaluates the consequences of universal public finance (UPF) for tuberculosis treatment in India using extended cost-effectiveness analysis (ECEA). The authors evaluated the impact of UPF on health gains, financial consequences, and catastrophic health expenditures, and concluded that the health gains and insurance value of UPF would accrue mostly to the poor. However, reductions in out-of-pocket expenditures were found to be more uniformly distributed across income quintiles. A variant on the base case suggests…
Economics/Finance | Policy/Regulation | Clinical Care | Priority Setting/Ethics | Costing Methods | Health Outcomes | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Social Determinants | Health Systems | Health/Medicine | Asia & Pacific -
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…
Economics/Finance | Policy/Regulation | Mathematical Models | State-Transition | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Business/Industry | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | North America -
ArticlePublication 2022Equity Impact of Minimum Unit Pricing of Alcohol
South Africa experiences significant levels of alcohol-related harm. Recent research suggests minimum unit pricing (MUP) …
South Africa experiences significant levels of alcohol-related harm. Recent research suggests minimum unit pricing (MUP) for alcohol would be an effective policy, but high levels of income inequality raise concerns about equity impacts. This paper quantifies the equity impact of MUP on household health and finances in rich and poor drinkers in South Africa. Authors estimate MUP would reduce consumption more among the poorest than the richest drinkers. A MUP policy in South Africa has…
Economics/Finance | Policy/Regulation | Priority Setting/Ethics | Chronic Disease/Risk | Social Determinants | Health/Medicine | Sub-Saharan Africa -
ArticlePublication 2022Economic Evaluations of Health System Strengthening Activities
Health system strengthening (HSS) activities should accompany disease-targeting interventions in low/middle-income countries (LMICs). Economic evaluations …
Health system strengthening (HSS) activities should accompany disease-targeting interventions in low/middle-income countries (LMICs). Economic evaluations provide information on how these types of investment might best be balanced but can be challenging. This paper conducted a systematic review to evaluate how researchers address these economic evaluation challenges. The authors searches produced 1978 studies, out of which they included 36. Most studies used data from prospective trials and calculated cost-effectiveness directly from these trial inputs, rather than…
Economics/Finance | Policy/Regulation | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Health Systems | Health/Medicine | Global -
ArticlePublication 2022Vaccinations versus Lockdowns to Prevent COVID-19 Mortality
This analysis estimated the costs associated with preventing Covid-19 deaths by vaccinations versus lockdowns. Publicly …
This analysis estimated the costs associated with preventing Covid-19 deaths by vaccinations versus lockdowns. Publicly available datasets from the Israeli Ministry of Health were used to model the parameters of the pandemic in Israel. The Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker was used for quantitative data on government policies. Data on the Israeli economy were taken from the Central Bureau of Statistics. The models demonstrate that the first lockdown prevented 1022 COVID-19 deaths at the cost…
Economics/Finance | Policy/Regulation | Decision Theory | Costing Methods | Health Outcomes | State-Transition | Decision Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Middle East & North Africa -
ArticlePublication 2022COVID-19 Response: The Need for Economic Evaluation
COVID-19-related policies are fraught with trade-offs. Many of these trade-offs involve dimensions that can be …
COVID-19-related policies are fraught with trade-offs. Many of these trade-offs involve dimensions that can be quantitatively weighed using economic evaluation, such as those between health and cost outcomes. Other types of dimensions, such as those involving equity or autonomy, can be harder to quantify but should be considered in a comprehensive health policy decision-making context nonetheless. The authors of this New England Journal of Medicine Perspectives article outline how methods of economic evaluation and decision…
Economics/Finance | Policy/Regulation | Priority Setting/Ethics | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Health/Medicine | Global | North America -
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…
Economics/Finance | Policy/Regulation | Value of Information | State-Transition | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Infectious Diseases | North America | Europe