The tension between cost-utility analysis and preventive public health.
Public health programs must often work under severe budgetary constraints. It would appear then that cost-utility analysis could offer decision-makers a practical approach to prioritizing public health interventions. Unfortunately, cost-utility analysis is a poor tool for programmatic decision-making in public health because it systematically downgrades interventions aimed at prevention, and because it is not designed to help guide multi-dimensional, multi-input community public health programs. Thus, a different kind of prioritization framework is needed, one that is better aligned with community action and the preventive aims of public health.
Hyun
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Department of Bioethics, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, USA.
D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D006801:Humans; D011314:Preventive Health Services / Q000191:economics*; D011634:Public Health