Health interventions assessment

Purpose and uses

Health systems have multiple goals, but the fundamental reason they exist is to improve health. Yet health systems with very similar levels of health expenditure per capita show wide variations in population health outcomes. Part can be explained by variation in non-health system factors, such as the level of education of the population. But part can also be explained by the fact that some systems devote resources to expensive interventions with small effects on population health, while at the same time low cost interventions with potentially greater benefits are not fully implemented.

Cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) is one tool decision-makers can use to assess and potentially improve the performance of their health systems. It indicates which interventions provide the highest "value for money" and helps them choose the interventions and programmes which maximize health for the available resources.

Database on cost-effectiveness

WHO-CHOICE: CHOosing Interventions that are Cost-Effective
visit the WHO-CHOICE website

CHOICE has been developing the tools and methods for generalized CEA. Its objectives are to:

develop a standardized method for cost effectiveness analysis that can be applied to all interventions in different settings;
develop and disseminate tools required to assess intervention costs and impacts at the population level;
determine the costs and effectiveness of a wide range of health interventions, undertaken by themselves or in combination;
summarize the results in regional databases that will be available on the World Wide Web;
assist policy makers and other stakeholders to interpret and use the evidence.