Resources Repository
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ArticlePublication 2017Using Cost-Effectiveness Analysis to Address Health Equity Concerns
This article serves as a guide to using cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) to address health equity …
This article serves as a guide to using cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) to address health equity concerns. The authors introduce the "equity impact plane," a tool for considering trade-offs between improving total health-the objective underpinning conventional CEA-and equity objectives, such as reducing social inequality in health or prioritizing the severely ill. Improving total health may clash with reducing social inequality in health, for example, when effective delivery of services to disadvantaged communities requires additional costs. Who…
Preferences/Values | Priority Setting/Ethics | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Health Systems | Policy/Regulation | Health/Medicine | Global -
ArticlePublication 2017Using Data-Driven Agent-Based Models to Forecast Emerging Infectious Diseases
This paper describes an agent-based model framework developed to forecast the 2014-15 Ebola epidemic, which …
This paper describes an agent-based model framework developed to forecast the 2014-15 Ebola epidemic, which was subsequently used in the Ebola forecasting challenge. Producing timely and reliable forecasts for an epidemic of an emerging infectious disease is a challenge. Epidemiologists and policy makers have to deal with poor data quality, limited understanding of the disease dynamics, a rapidly changing social environment and the uncertainty around the effects of various interventions in place. In this setting,…
Calibration/Validation | Microsimulation | Dynamic Simulation | Infectious Diseases | Health/Medicine | Sub-Saharan Africa -
ArticlePublication 2017Likelihood Approach for Calibration of Stochastic Epidemic Models
Stochastic transmission dynamic models are especially useful for studying the early emergence of novel pathogens …
Stochastic transmission dynamic models are especially useful for studying the early emergence of novel pathogens given the importance of chance events when the number of infectious individuals is small. However, methods for parameter estimation and prediction for these types of stochastic models remain limited. This paper describes a calibration and prediction framework for stochastic compartmental transmission models of epidemics. The proposed method applies a linear noise approximation to describe the size of the fluctuations, and…
Calibration/Validation | Dynamic Transmission | Dynamic Simulation | Infectious Diseases | Health Systems | Health/Medicine | Global -
ArticlePublication 2016Estimating Benefits of Regulations Affecting Addictive Goods
The question of how to evaluate lost consumer surplus in benefit−cost analyses is controversial. There …
The question of how to evaluate lost consumer surplus in benefit−cost analyses is controversial. There are clear health benefits of regulations that curb consumption of goods with health risks, such as tobacco products and foods high in fats, calories, sugar, and sodium. Yet, if regulations cause consumers to give up goods they like, the health benefits they experience may be offset by some utility loss, which benefit−cost analyses of regulations need to take into account.…
Preferences/Values | Decision Theory | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Mental Health | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2016Measuring Benefits of Opioid Misuse Treatment: HRQOL of Opioid-Dependent Individuals and Spouses
This study sought to understand how the general public views the quality of life effects …
This study sought to understand how the general public views the quality of life effects of opioid misuse and opioid use disorder on an individual and his/her spouse, measured in terms used in economic evaluations. The study design was a cross-sectional internet survey of a US population-representative respondent panel conducted December 2013-January 2014, with a total of 2054 randomly selected adults, of whom 51.1% were male. The mean individual utility ranged from 0.574 for active injection…
Preferences/Values | Health Outcomes | Chronic Disease/Risk | Mental Health | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | North America -
ArticlePublication 2016“Nudges” in Law and Policy
This article describes research on Americans’ preferences for types of “nudges” in the context of …
This article describes research on Americans’ preferences for types of “nudges” in the context of law and public policy—those that target “system 1” thinking, meaning the intuitive, emotion-based mechanisms, such as graphic warnings and default rules, versus those that target “system 2” thinking, the rational, deliberative form of cognition, such as statistical information or education-based messages.
Preferences/Values | Decision Psychology | Priority Setting/Ethics | Policy/Regulation | Culture/Society | Government/Law | Health/Medicine -
ArticlePublication 2015Cancer Models and Real-World Data: Better Together
Decision-analytic models synthesize available data on disease burden and intervention effectiveness to project estimates of …
Decision-analytic models synthesize available data on disease burden and intervention effectiveness to project estimates of the long-term consequences of care. While models have been influential in informing US cancer screening guidelines under ideal conditions, incorporating detailed data on real-world screening practice has been limited given the complexity of screening processes and behaviors throughout diverse health delivery systems in the United States. The authors describe the synergies that exist between decision-analytic models and health care utilization…
Calibration/Validation | Evidence Synthesis | Mathematical Models | Chronic Disease/Risk | Health Systems | Clinical Care | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology | North America -
ArticlePublication 2015Broader Economic Impact of Vaccination: Reviewing and Appraising the Strength of Evidence
Economic evaluations of public health programs such as immunization often consider only direct health benefits and …
Economic evaluations of public health programs such as immunization often consider only direct health benefits and medical cost savings. Evidence linking immunization to important benefits in indicators such as childhood development, household behavior, and other macro-economic data are unclear. A conceptual framework of the pathways between immunization and these broader economic benefits was developed through expert consultation. The authors obtained articles from previous reviews, snowballing, and expert consultation, and associated them with one of the pathways and assessed them using modified Grading…
Preferences/Values | Priority Setting/Ethics | Costing Methods | Evidence Synthesis | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Social Determinants | Economics/Finance | Education/Labor | Health/Medicine -
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…
Preferences/Values | Benefit-Cost Analysis | Chronic Disease/Risk | Social Determinants | Policy/Regulation | Culture/Society | Economics/Finance | Health/Medicine | North America