Resources Repository
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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…
Mathematical Models | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Health/Medicine | Economics/Finance | North America | State-Transition | Infectious Diseases | Policy/Regulation | Business/Industry | Government/Law -
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…
Benefit-Cost Analysis | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Health/Medicine | Economics/Finance | North America | Priority Setting/Ethics | Infectious Diseases | Policy/Regulation | Global -
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…
Mathematical Models | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Health/Medicine | Economics/Finance | North America | Microsimulation | Chronic Disease/Risk | Policy/Regulation | Food/Agriculture | Government/Law -
ArticlePublication 2019Health Impact and Cost-Effectiveness of SSB Taxes for Reducing Cancer Burden in the U.S.
This analysis evaluated the health outcomes, costs, and cost-effectiveness of a national sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) …
This analysis evaluated the health outcomes, costs, and cost-effectiveness of a national sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax policy for reducing obesity-related cancer in the U.S. A probabilistic cohort state-transition model, the Diet Cancer Outcome Model (DiCOM), was used to project the effect of a national $0.01 per ounce SSB excise tax on 13 obesity-associated cancers among U.S. adults age 20 and older over their lifetime. Cost-effectiveness was evaluated using both government affordability and societal perspectives. Results showed…
Mathematical Models | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Health/Medicine | Economics/Finance | North America | Microsimulation | Chronic Disease/Risk | Policy/Regulation | Government/Law -
ReviewPublication 2017Patients' Preferences in Cancer Treatment: Review of Discrete Choice Experiments
This study aimed to systematically review discrete choice experiments (DCEs) about patients’ preferences for cancer …
This study aimed to systematically review discrete choice experiments (DCEs) about patients’ preferences for cancer treatment and assessed the relative importance of outcome, process and cost attributes. A systematic literature review was conducted using PubMed and EMBASE to identify all DCEs investigating patients’ preferences for cancer treatment between January 2010 and April 2016. Attributes were classified into outcome, process and cost attributes, and their relative importance was assessed. A total of 28 DCEs were identified.…
Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Decision Analysis | Health/Medicine | Economics/Finance | North America | Preferences/Values | Health Outcomes | Chronic Disease/Risk | Health Systems | Europe -
ArticlePublication 2017Cost-Effectiveness of Subsidizing Fruit and Vegetable through SNAP
A diet high in fruits and vegetables is associated with reduced risk of chronic disease …
A diet high in fruits and vegetables is associated with reduced risk of chronic disease - to incentivize consumption among low-income households one proposal is to make them more affordable through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). This cost effectiveness analysis adopts a societal perspective to estimate the value of subsidizing fruit and vegetable (FV) purchases among the one in seven Americans who participate in SNAP. A stochastic microsimulation model of obesity, type 2 diabetes, myocardial infarction,…
Mathematical Models | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Health/Medicine | Economics/Finance | North America | Microsimulation | Child/Nutrition | Chronic Disease/Risk | Social Determinants | Policy/Regulation | Food/Agriculture -
ReviewPublication 2016Remembering Howard Raiffa
Howard Raiffa (1924-2016) had a profound influence on all aspects of the decision sciences and on …
Howard Raiffa (1924-2016) had a profound influence on all aspects of the decision sciences and on the fields of systems analysis and operations research. He guided the introduction of the decision sciences into numerous fields such as business, medicine, public health, the environmental sciences, and law, and was instrumental in building world-recognized institutions such as the Kennedy School at Harvard and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis near Vienna, Austria. This article is a thoughtful tribute by…
Operations Research | Decision Analysis | Health/Medicine | Economics/Finance | North America | Decision Theory | Preferences/Values | Business/Industry | Military/Defense -
ReviewPublication 2022Systematic Review of Economic Evaluations of COVID-19 Interventions: Non-Health Impacts and Distributional Issues
The authors conducted a systematic review of economic evaluations of COVID-19 interventions and assessed whether …
The authors conducted a systematic review of economic evaluations of COVID-19 interventions and assessed whether they incorporated non-health impacts and distributional concerns. Among the 70 articles included, more than half (56%) included at least one non-health impact, although only 21% incorporated non-economic consequences. Only 17% examined subgroups of interest. The median ICER for the entire sample was $67,000/quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) (interquartile range [IQR] $9000-$893,000/QALY). Interventions including a pharmaceutical component yielded a median ICER of $93,000/QALY (IQR…
Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Health/Medicine | Culture/Society | Economics/Finance | North America | Evidence Synthesis | Infectious Diseases | Social Determinants -
ArticlePublication 2015Valuing Regulations Affecting Addictive or Habitual Goods
The analysis of regulations affecting addictive or habitual goods has drawn considerable controversy. Some studies …
The analysis of regulations affecting addictive or habitual goods has drawn considerable controversy. Some studies have suggested that such regulations have only small welfare benefits, as consumers value these goods despite health benefits from quitting, while other studies suggest that information or behavioral problems make existing consumption decisions a poor guide to welfare evaluation. This analysis examines potential utility offsets to health benefits of regulations affecting addictive or habitual goods theoretically and empirically. The paper…
Benefit-Cost Analysis | Health/Medicine | Culture/Society | Economics/Finance | North America | Preferences/Values | Chronic Disease/Risk | Social Determinants | Policy/Regulation