Applying Economic Evaluation to Public Health: Case Studies in Cost Effectiveness



Collins, BJ ORCID: 0000-0002-3023-8189
(2016) Applying Economic Evaluation to Public Health: Case Studies in Cost Effectiveness. Doctor of Philosophy thesis, University of Liverpool.

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Abstract

For local public health teams, commissioning services that work and are cost effective is important. Having ways of evaluating and assessing their cost effectiveness is invaluable. Health economics and public health have a natural kinship as they both take a population approach to maximising health. The aim of this investigation is to give examples of how a mixed methods approach can be used. This thesis gives three case studies where public health commissioned services for alcohol, tobacco and drug addiction in the North West of England have been evaluated for their cost effectiveness using a mix of economic evaluation techniques combined with elements of realist evaluation and equity impact analysis. These mixed methods evaluation techniques involve engaging with stakeholders to develop a common understanding of outcomes and assumptions in reaching a common understanding of the causal mechanisms that make an intervention work. This thesis outlines how the results of these evaluations were useful in informing strategy and the commissioning process and how they may be used more in the future. There were some novel analyses including matching up crime data and putting a cost on these crimes for people in contact with a drugs test on arrest programme, which found that costs were lower after the drug intervention. The researcher found that there was not a significant change in admissions post-detoxification which indicates that perhaps inpatient residential detoxification has only a limited effect on long term health prospects. This thesis has shown that economic evaluation and realist evaluation methods pose some challenges but can be carried out at a local level as a way of looking at public health interventions through a more complex lens.

Item Type: Thesis (Doctor of Philosophy)
Divisions: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Management
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 28 Jul 2016 12:28
Last Modified: 16 Jan 2024 17:21
DOI: 10.17638/03000651
Supervisors:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3000651