Theory and Methods of Economic Evaluation of Health Care

This volume describes the theory and methods of economic evaluation of health care. Currently, most economic evaluations of health care programmes are cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analyses, while in the environmental and traffic safety fields it is common to carry out instead traditional cost-benefit analysis of health improving programmes. This difference in how health programmes are assessed in different fields was the original motivation for writing this book. The text aims to show how the costs and benefits of health-care programmes can be defined and measured using welfare economic theory. Also, considerable attention is devoted to cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analysis where the health effects are measured in non-monetary units, thus providing a unifying cost-benefit framework for all methods of economic evaluation. Finally, the problems and potentials of using economic evaluation in policy making are also discussed. The book provides numerous examples of applications of the different methods. It is intended for both instructors and practitioners in the health-care field.