Resources Repository
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ReviewPublication 2016Using Economic Evidence to Set Healthcare Priorities in LMIC
Policy makers in low-income and lower-middle-income countries (LMICs) are increasingly looking to develop ‘evidence-based’ frameworks …
Policy makers in low-income and lower-middle-income countries (LMICs) are increasingly looking to develop ‘evidence-based’ frameworks for identifying priority health interventions. This paper synthesizes and appraises the literature on methodological frameworks – which incorporate economic evaluation evidence – for the purpose of setting healthcare priorities in LMICs. A systematic search of Embase, MEDLINE, Econlit and PubMed identified 3968 articles with a further 21 articles identified through manual searching. A total of 36 papers were eligible for inclusion.…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Asia & Pacific | Middle East & North Africa | Sub-Saharan Africa | Policy/Regulation | Health Systems | Technology Assessment | Economics/Finance | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Latin America & Caribbean -
ArticlePublication 2016Departures from Cost-Effectiveness Recommendations: Health System Constraints
Cost-effectiveness analysis assumes a single constraint, in the form of the budget constraint, whereas in reality …
Cost-effectiveness analysis assumes a single constraint, in the form of the budget constraint, whereas in reality decision makers may be faced with numerous other constraints. The objective of this article is to develop a typology of constraints that may act as barriers to implementation of cost-effectiveness recommendations. Six categories of constraints are considered: the design of the health system; costs of implementing change; system interactions between interventions; uncertainty in estimates of costs and benefits; weak governance;…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Asia & Pacific | Middle East & North Africa | Sub-Saharan Africa | Policy/Regulation | Health Systems | Economics/Finance | Education/Labor | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Latin America & Caribbean -
ArticleWeb Portal 2017PLoS Collection: Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Sexually Transmitted Infections
Globally, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than one million new sexually transmitted …
Globally, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than one million new sexually transmitted infections (STIs) occur each day, incurring a very substantial burden of morbidity, mortality and additional infections. The pathogens responsible include bacteria, parasites and viruses, and intensive research is needed to address the substantial barriers to diagnosis and treatment of STIs, and the behavioral challenges of prevention. This PLOS collection, published in collaboration with WHO, focuses on global policy and systems…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Asia & Pacific | Middle East & North Africa | Sub-Saharan Africa | Health Systems | Costing Methods | Mathematical Models | Dynamic Transmission | Infectious Diseases | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | Latin America & Caribbean -
ArticlePublication 2017Getting it Right When Budgets are Tight: Prioritizing Responses to HIV Epidemics
Prioritizing investments across health interventions is complicated by the nonlinear relationship between intervention coverage and …
Prioritizing investments across health interventions is complicated by the nonlinear relationship between intervention coverage and epidemiological outcomes. It can be difficult for countries to know which interventions to prioritize for greatest epidemiological impact, particularly when budgets are uncertain.The authors examined four case studies of HIV epidemics in diverse settings, each with different characteristics. These case studies were based on public data available for Belarus, Peru, Togo, and Myanmar. The Optima HIV model and software package…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Asia & Pacific | Middle East & North Africa | Sub-Saharan Africa | Health Systems | Costing Methods | Mathematical Models | Infectious Diseases | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | Latin America & Caribbean -
ArticlePublication 2016Country-Level Cost-Effectiveness Thresholds
This article estimates the cost-effectiveness thresholds (CETs) for health interventions in several low and middle-income …
This article estimates the cost-effectiveness thresholds (CETs) for health interventions in several low and middle-income countries (LMICs), based on opportunity costs. When there are constraints on a health care system’s budget or ability to increase expenditures, additional costs imposed by interventions have an “opportunity cost” in terms of the health foregone because other interventions cannot be provided. The authors argue that cost-effectiveness thresholds should reflect health opportunity cost and aim to calculate these in four…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Asia & Pacific | Middle East & North Africa | Sub-Saharan Africa | Health Systems | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | Latin America & Caribbean | Europe -
ArticlePublication 2016Maternal-Related Deaths and Impoverishment among Adolescent Girls in India and Niger
This article, published in BMJ Open, examined the distribution of maternal deaths and impoverishment among …
This article, published in BMJ Open, examined the distribution of maternal deaths and impoverishment among adolescent girls across socioeconomic groups in Niger and India, which have the largest fertility rate, and number of maternal deaths, respectively. Results showed that in Niger and India, the poorer adolescents had a larger number of maternal deaths compared to the richer. Impoverishment occurred mostly among the richer adolescents in Niger and among the poorer adolescents in India. Increasing educational…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Asia & Pacific | Sub-Saharan Africa | Health Systems | Costing Methods | Health Outcomes | Mathematical Models | Maternal/Reproductive Health | Social Determinants | Economics/Finance | Education/Labor | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2015Health Gains & Financial Risk Protection by Public Financing in Ethiopia: An ECEA
This article, published in the Lancet Global Health, aims to evaluate the health and financial …
This article, published in the Lancet Global Health, aims to evaluate the health and financial risk protection benefits of selected interventions that could be publicly financed by the government of Ethiopia. The authors used an extended cost-effectiveness analysis (ECEA) to assess the health gains (deaths averted) and financial risk protection afforded (cases of poverty averted) by a bundle of nine interventions that the Government of Ethiopia aims to make universally available. This approach incorporates financial…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Sub-Saharan Africa | Policy/Regulation | Health Systems | Mathematical Models | Infectious Diseases | Maternal/Reproductive Health | Child/Nutrition | Chronic Disease/Risk | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2015Salt Reduction Policy in South Africa: Extended Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
This paper is an extended cost-effectiveness analysis to model the potential health and economic impacts of …
This paper is an extended cost-effectiveness analysis to model the potential health and economic impacts of a salt reduction policy in South Africa. The authors used surveys and epidemiologic studies to estimate reductions in CVD resulting from lower salt intake. They calculated the average out-of-pocket (OOP) cost of CVD care and estimated the reduction in OOP expenditures and government subsidies due to the policy. They also estimated the costs of policy implementation and financial risk protection (FRP) benefits. The…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Sub-Saharan Africa | Policy/Regulation | Health Systems | Costing Methods | Chronic Disease/Risk | Economics/Finance | Food/Agriculture | Health/Medicine -
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…
Priority Setting/Ethics | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Asia & Pacific | Policy/Regulation | Health Systems | Costing Methods | Health Outcomes | Infectious Diseases | Social Determinants | Clinical Care | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine