Resources Repository
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ArticlePublication 2015Controlling Measles Using Supplemental Immunization: A Mathematical Model
The Measles & Rubella Initiative, a broad consortium of global health agencies, has provided support …
The Measles & Rubella Initiative, a broad consortium of global health agencies, has provided support to measles-burdened countries, focusing on sustaining high coverage of routine immunization of children and supplementing it with a second dose opportunity for measles vaccine through supplemental immunization activities (SIAs). Authors estimate optimal scheduling of SIAs in countries with the highest measles burden using an age-stratified dynamic compartmental model of measles transmission. They explore the frequency of SIAs in order to achieve…
Dynamic Transmission | Health Outcomes | Infectious Diseases | Health Systems | Health/Medicine | Asia & Pacific -
ArticlePublication 2014Rise and Fall of HIV in High-Prevalence Countries: A Challenge for Mathematical Modeling
Several countries with generalized, high-prevalence HIV epidemics, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, have experienced rapid declines …
Several countries with generalized, high-prevalence HIV epidemics, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, have experienced rapid declines in transmission. These HIV epidemics, often with rapid onsets, have generally been attributed to a combination of factors related to high-risk sexual behavior. The subsequent declines in these countries began prior to widespread therapy or implementation of any other major biomedical prevention. This change has been construed as evidence of behavior change, often on the basis of mathematical models, but…
Mathematical Models | Health Outcomes | Infectious Diseases | Health/Medicine | Sub-Saharan Africa -
ArticlePublication 2013Using Occupational Injury Data to Estimate VSL
This article discusses the use of occupational fatality rate data to estimate the additional pay …
This article discusses the use of occupational fatality rate data to estimate the additional pay workers receive for bearing greater risks, while controlling for other aspects of the job and characteristics of the worker. This tradeoff rate is typically referenced as the value of a statistical life (VSL). The extensive U.S. labor market literature generating VSL estimates has utilized several fatality rate measures which are typically matched to employment information on workers from large datasets.…
Preferences/Values | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Policy/Regulation | College | Graduate | Critical Thinking/Analysis -
ArticlePublication 2013Valuing Health Risk Reductions
In this article, the authors discuss how to value risk reductions in the context of …
In this article, the authors discuss how to value risk reductions in the context of benefit-cost analysis. Many public policies and private actions affect the risk of injury, illness, or death, yet changes in these risks are not easily valued using market prices. The authors begin with a pragmatic focus, describing the analytic framework and the approaches currently used for valuation, including estimates of willingness to pay (WTP), cost of illness (COI), and monetized quality-adjusted…
Preferences/Values | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Policy/Regulation | College | Graduate | Critical Thinking/Analysis -
ReviewPublication 2013Valuing the Economic Benefits of Complex Interventions
This is a review of economic evaluations of complex health interventions. Complex interventions, involving interlinked …
This is a review of economic evaluations of complex health interventions. Complex interventions, involving interlinked packages of care, challenge the application of current methods of economic evaluation that focus on measuring only health gain. The authors find that complex interventions may be problematic on two levels. First, the complexity means the intervention may not fit into one of the current appraisal systems, and/or second, maximizing health is not the only objective. This paper discusses the…
Preferences/Values | Decision Analysis | Health Systems | Policy/Regulation | Economics/Finance | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology | Europe -
ReviewPublication 2012From Efficacy to Equity: Literature Review
Resource allocation is a challenging issue faced by health policy decision makers requiring careful consideration …
Resource allocation is a challenging issue faced by health policy decision makers requiring careful consideration of many factors. The aim of this study was to analyse the peer-reviewed literature to identify criteria reported in empirical studies that involved healthcare decisionmakers and in studies describing multicriteria tools.
Priority Setting/Ethics | Social Determinants | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2012Modeling the Risks and Benefits of Depression Treatment for Children and Young Adults
This article, published in Value in Health, presents a discrete event simulation model to quantify …
This article, published in Value in Health, presents a discrete event simulation model to quantify the trade-offs with respect to clinical benefits and the risk of fatal and non-fatal suicidal behavior of alternative treatment strategies for a U.S. pediatric population with major depressive disorder. The authors evaluate treatment strategies including: selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and a combination of both. The results show that the use of SSRIs is associated with…
Microsimulation | Health Outcomes | Technology Assessment | Mental Health | Health/Medicine | North America -
ArticlePublication 2012Expert Elicitation of VSL
This article uses expert elicitation to address the monetary value of avoided premature mortality, which …
This article uses expert elicitation to address the monetary value of avoided premature mortality, which typically dominates the quantified benefits of air pollution regulations. Formal expert elicitation methods are one means of characterizing associated uncertainties. The authors undertake a pilot study that elicits quantitative probabilistic judgments of uncertainties in value per statistical life (VSL) estimates for use in an air pollution context. The two-stage elicitation addresses uncertainties in both a base case VSL for a…
Preferences/Values | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Policy/Regulation | Climate/Environment | College | Graduate | Critical Thinking/Analysis -
ArticlePublication 2012Value of Family Planning for Improving Maternal Health in Rural Afghanistan
This article, published in the Afghanistan Journal of Public Health, uses a model designed to …
This article, published in the Afghanistan Journal of Public Health, uses a model designed to simulate the natural history of pregnancy and associated maternal mortality and morbidity contextualized to Afghanistan to assess the cost-effectiveness of family planning in the rural Maywand district of Kandahar. Using total fertility rate, pregnancy-related complications, maternal mortality ratio, lifetime risk of maternal death, and proportionate mortality ratio as outcomes, the model finds that increasing family planning from 8% to 30-50% could…
Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Health Outcomes | Maternal/Reproductive Health | Policy/Regulation | Health/Medicine | Asia & Pacific