Economic Evaluation of Environmental Health Interventions to Support Decision Making

Environmental burden of disease represents one quarter of overall disease burden, hence necessitating greater attention from decision makers both inside and outside the health sector. Economic evaluation techniques such as cost-effectiveness analysis and cost-benefit analysis provide key information to health decision makers on the efficiency of environmental health interventions, assisting them in choosing interventions which give the greatest social return on limited public budgets and private resources. The aim of this article is to review economic evaluation studies in three environmental health areas-water, sanitation, hygiene (WSH), vector control, and air pollution-and to critically examine the policy relevance and scientific quality of the studies for selecting and funding public programmers. A keyword search of Medline from 1990-2008 revealed 32 studies, and gathering of articles from other sources revealed a further 18 studies, giving a total of 50 economic evaluation studies (13 WSH interventions, 16 vector control and 21 air pollution). Overall, the economic evidence base on environmental health interventions remains relatively weak-too few studies per intervention, of variable scientific quality and from diverse locations which limits generalisability of findings. Importantly, there still exists a disconnect between economic research, decision making and programmer implementation. This can be explained by the lack of translation of research findings into accessible documentation for policy makers and limited relevance of research findings, and the often low importance of economic evidence in budgeting decisions. These findings underline the importance of involving policy makers in the defining of research agendas and commissioning of research, and improving the awareness of researchers of the policy environment into which their research feeds.

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Hutton, G.
Format: Journal Article biblioteca
Language:EN
Published: 2008
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5095
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
id dig-okr-109865095
record_format koha
spelling dig-okr-1098650952021-04-23T14:02:21Z Economic Evaluation of Environmental Health Interventions to Support Decision Making Hutton, G. Environmental burden of disease represents one quarter of overall disease burden, hence necessitating greater attention from decision makers both inside and outside the health sector. Economic evaluation techniques such as cost-effectiveness analysis and cost-benefit analysis provide key information to health decision makers on the efficiency of environmental health interventions, assisting them in choosing interventions which give the greatest social return on limited public budgets and private resources. The aim of this article is to review economic evaluation studies in three environmental health areas-water, sanitation, hygiene (WSH), vector control, and air pollution-and to critically examine the policy relevance and scientific quality of the studies for selecting and funding public programmers. A keyword search of Medline from 1990-2008 revealed 32 studies, and gathering of articles from other sources revealed a further 18 studies, giving a total of 50 economic evaluation studies (13 WSH interventions, 16 vector control and 21 air pollution). Overall, the economic evidence base on environmental health interventions remains relatively weak-too few studies per intervention, of variable scientific quality and from diverse locations which limits generalisability of findings. Importantly, there still exists a disconnect between economic research, decision making and programmer implementation. This can be explained by the lack of translation of research findings into accessible documentation for policy makers and limited relevance of research findings, and the often low importance of economic evidence in budgeting decisions. These findings underline the importance of involving policy makers in the defining of research agendas and commissioning of research, and improving the awareness of researchers of the policy environment into which their research feeds. 2012-03-30T07:31:15Z 2012-03-30T07:31:15Z 2008 Journal Article Environ Health Insights 1178-6302 (Electronic) http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5095 EN http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Journal Article
institution Banco Mundial
collection DSpace
country Estados Unidos
countrycode US
component Bibliográfico
access En linea
databasecode dig-okr
tag biblioteca
region America del Norte
libraryname Biblioteca del Banco Mundial
language EN
description Environmental burden of disease represents one quarter of overall disease burden, hence necessitating greater attention from decision makers both inside and outside the health sector. Economic evaluation techniques such as cost-effectiveness analysis and cost-benefit analysis provide key information to health decision makers on the efficiency of environmental health interventions, assisting them in choosing interventions which give the greatest social return on limited public budgets and private resources. The aim of this article is to review economic evaluation studies in three environmental health areas-water, sanitation, hygiene (WSH), vector control, and air pollution-and to critically examine the policy relevance and scientific quality of the studies for selecting and funding public programmers. A keyword search of Medline from 1990-2008 revealed 32 studies, and gathering of articles from other sources revealed a further 18 studies, giving a total of 50 economic evaluation studies (13 WSH interventions, 16 vector control and 21 air pollution). Overall, the economic evidence base on environmental health interventions remains relatively weak-too few studies per intervention, of variable scientific quality and from diverse locations which limits generalisability of findings. Importantly, there still exists a disconnect between economic research, decision making and programmer implementation. This can be explained by the lack of translation of research findings into accessible documentation for policy makers and limited relevance of research findings, and the often low importance of economic evidence in budgeting decisions. These findings underline the importance of involving policy makers in the defining of research agendas and commissioning of research, and improving the awareness of researchers of the policy environment into which their research feeds.
format Journal Article
author Hutton, G.
spellingShingle Hutton, G.
Economic Evaluation of Environmental Health Interventions to Support Decision Making
author_facet Hutton, G.
author_sort Hutton, G.
title Economic Evaluation of Environmental Health Interventions to Support Decision Making
title_short Economic Evaluation of Environmental Health Interventions to Support Decision Making
title_full Economic Evaluation of Environmental Health Interventions to Support Decision Making
title_fullStr Economic Evaluation of Environmental Health Interventions to Support Decision Making
title_full_unstemmed Economic Evaluation of Environmental Health Interventions to Support Decision Making
title_sort economic evaluation of environmental health interventions to support decision making
publishDate 2008
url http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5095
work_keys_str_mv AT huttong economicevaluationofenvironmentalhealthinterventionstosupportdecisionmaking
_version_ 1756571583561859072