Cost-Effectiveness
and Cost-benefit Analysis in MCH
Resource Brief
This resource brief provides current, high-quality resources about cost effectiveness analysis and cost-benefit analysis in maternal and child health, two economic evaluation techniques that examine the costs of interventions relative to the benefits that they produce, either the costs and consequences of competing interventions for a given client group within a given budget or the costs of a policy or program over time compared to improvements in health expressed in monetary (dollar) terms (see glossary).
In addition, the brief provides links to discussions of effective programs and evidence-based practices that achieve health and wellness goals but that are not analyzed in terms of costs for the benefits achieved.
The brief is intended to help policy makers and program administrators make decisions about funding services and programs in maternal and child health.
Association of State and Territorial Health
Officials: Making the Case for Maternal and Child
Health Programs
Resources exploring cost-based or economic-based
analyses of programs and policies, including
a glossary, annotated bibliography of peer-reviewed
studies, examples from states that have conducted
cost analyses of programs, and additional resources.
Urban
Institute Researcher Toolkit: Cost-benefit
analysis
Definition of cost-benefit analysis, with examples.
Washington State Department of Health, Genetic Services Policy Project: The role of cost-effectiveness analysis in decision making about genetic services
Definitions of cost benefit analysis and cost effectiveness analysis, overview of their strengths and weaknesses.
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ): Evidence-based practice centers
Evidence reports and technology assessments on topics relevant to clinical, social
science/behavioral, economic, and other health care organization and delivery
issues, specifically those that are common, expensive, and/or significant for
the Medicare and Medicaid populations.
Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS)
Tools to help Medicaid stakeholders identify
health care strategies with potential to both
improve quality and control costs, including
the Return
on Investment (ROI) Evidence Base, a
selection of studies for clinical conditions
of high priority within Medicaid populations,
including asthma, depression, and high-risk pregnancy.
Child Care and Early Education Research Connections
Scholarly research, policy briefs, government reports, data and instruments
from a wide range of disciplines and U.S. and international sources, including
multiple federal agencies. Search the research collection using terms such
as “cost effective” or “cost benefit.”
National Business Group on Health (NBGH)
Employer toolkits and other resources that explain
the business case for addressing health conditions
in employees and their families and that provide
evidence-informed model benefit plans to address
these concerns.
National Information Center on Health Services
Research and Health Care Technology (NICHSR)
Training
activities including online courses such as Health
Economics Information Resources: A
Self-Study Course, which
guides users in the identification, retrieval,
and assessment of high quality health economic
evaluation studies and related publications.
Its HSR
Information Central provides
links to literature, data sources, legislation,
and other tools, and training activities.
National
Health Service Economic Evaluation Database
(NHS EED) (England)
Online database of over 7,000 abstracts of quality
assessed economic evaluations from around the
globe, as well as other sources of health economics
data.
Partnership
for America’s Economic Success
(PAES)
Research on the economic benefits of investments
in children and the policy changes needed to
fund services commensurate with their economic
value.
PubMed
Over 18 million citations and abstracts from
MEDLINE and other life science journals for biomedical
articles indexed by the National Library of Medicine
back to the 1950s, with links to full text of
articles when available.
Search tips: Enter the phrase “Cost-benefit analysis” in the search box. Click Advanced Search, and choose the box for Humans and the box for English (or other desired language). Then click Search. Or use broader term “costs and cost analysis.”
To narrow your search, add terms such as “child health services” or “maternal health services.” Also limit the search by date (using Advanced Search) to retrieve only more recent items.
Trust
for America’s Health: Prevention
for a Healthier America
Report and other materials from a study in 2008 that found cost savings from funds spent on community-based programs to increase physical activity, improve nutrition, and prevent smoking and other tobacco use.
These bibliographies are drawn from MCHLine®, the online library catalog of the Maternal and Child Health Library. They focus on recent publications from government agencies and national organizations such as reports, policy analyses, issue briefs, guidelines, training materials, and selected consumer information. The organizations list focuses on government agencies and national organizations that work on a broad range of maternal and child health issues and that provide information to the public.
- Cost Effectiveness of MCH Programs bibliography
- Effective Community Programs organizations
- Effective Program Practices bibliography
For more information on this topic, use the MCH Library Advanced Search using the term Cost efectiveness.
Authors: Olivia K. Pickett, M.A., M.L.S., Beth DeFrancis Sun, MCH LibraryAugust 2008
