title: Critical review of economic evaluation studies of interventions promoting low-fat diets.
abstract: Various national and local policies encouraging healthy eating have recently been proposed. The present review aims to summarize and critically assess nutrition-economic evaluation studies of direct (e.g., diet counseling) and indirect (e.g., food labeling) interventions aimed at improving dietary habits. A systematic literature review was performed by searching 5 databases (PubMed, Ovid Medline, EconLit, Agricola, and Embase) using a combination of diet-related (fat, diet, intake, nutrition) and economics-related (cost-effectiveness, cost-benefit, cost-utility, health economics, economic evaluation) key words. The search yielded 36 studies that varied in target population, study design, economic evaluation method, and health/economic outcome. In general, all provide limited experimental evidence and adopt the framework of economic evaluations in healthcare. Certain important aspects were not well considered: 1) the non-health-related effects of nutrition interventions on well-being; 2) the private nature of food expenditures; 3) the distributional effects on food expenditures across socioeconomic groups; and 4) the general economic implications (e.g., agrofoods, import/export) of such interventions. Overall, the methodology for the economic evaluation of nutrition interventions requires substantial improvement.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research on Health and Social Care Management (CERGAS), Department of Policy Analysis and Public Management, Bocconi University, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fattore
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ferrè
authors.forename: Michela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Meregaglia
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fattore
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Agostoni
mesh_terms: D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D018752:Diet, Fat-Restricted / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans
keywords: cost effectiveness; diet intervention; economic evaluation; nutrition; public policies; review