Health economics and population health: emerging methodological and policy issues for the public health and health economics communities
Rhiannon Tudor-Edwards (Bangor University) and Will Hollingworth (DECIPHer)
11.00, Wednesday 10 July. Hospitality Suite 55, level 5
The PHSRN ‘Economics of population health’ workshop held in Glasgow in May 2012 identified a tension between the dominant focus of economic evaluation on ‘downstream’, NHS-delivered, individual behaviour change interventions and the emerging evidence that population health is most likely to be improved through environmental change, government legislation and opportunities in other sectors to address the ‘upstream’ social determinants of population health. This debate poses challenges for economic evaluation. Specifically, the need to consider equity and/or the opportunity cost of focussing on equity, the context-dependence of cost-effectiveness estimates (which may limit the generalisability of findings), and the challenges of communicating results to cross-sectoral government, public health policy makers and practitioners.
This workshop explores these issues further, reflecting on:
· sources of available published guidance for health economists involved in the design, conduct and reporting of economic evaluation of population health interventions;
· resources needed to undertake such economic evaluations;
· statistical considerations such as power calculations, missing data and study design;
· equity audit, and methods for modelling the long term costs and benefits of population health interventions.
We draw on a number of recently published studies to illustrate the opportunities and challenges in this field. Whilst acknowledging the strengths and limitations of alternative economic evaluation methods, we explore approaches taken by other public sector economists (e.g. education, housing and transport) that have been used to bridge the gaps between evidence, policy and practice.
Workshop participants will have an opportunity to discuss the tensions between the need for rigour in economic evaluations of population health and the needs of policy makers for rapid and clear-cut evidence to inform decision making.
This workshop explores these issues further, reflecting on:
· sources of available published guidance for health economists involved in the design, conduct and reporting of economic evaluation of population health interventions;
· resources needed to undertake such economic evaluations;
· statistical considerations such as power calculations, missing data and study design;
· equity audit, and methods for modelling the long term costs and benefits of population health interventions.
We draw on a number of recently published studies to illustrate the opportunities and challenges in this field. Whilst acknowledging the strengths and limitations of alternative economic evaluation methods, we explore approaches taken by other public sector economists (e.g. education, housing and transport) that have been used to bridge the gaps between evidence, policy and practice.
Workshop participants will have an opportunity to discuss the tensions between the need for rigour in economic evaluations of population health and the needs of policy makers for rapid and clear-cut evidence to inform decision making.