ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF PREVENTIVE HEALTH INTERVENTIONS: A POLICY PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The paper concludes on the economical worth and the significance of the preventive health treatment in terms of economy by applying a mixed-methodology, which combines the cost-effectiveness model, the cost-benefit analysis and the qualitative policy analysis.  The epidemiological and economic data were analysed using markov decision models, incremental cost-effectiveness ratios, quality-adjusted life years, and net monetary benefit.  The results indicate that the preventive actions such as vaccination, screening and management of risk factors at an earlier age all yield good cost-effectiveness results and huge savings in long-term health care service and to society at large.  The results sensitivity to coverage, costs and variations in epidemiological uncertainty were validated by the sensitivity analysis that is based on probabilistic sensitivity analysis.  The qualitative findings given by policymakers and health program managers reported institution and regulatory barriers that give it the form of a challenge to implement plans that has a solid economic purpose of implementing.  A generalization of the quantitative and qualitative findings indicates that prevention based strategies are more useful than treatment based models and will minimize the disease burden in the future, enhance productivity, and improve the fiscal sustainability.  This paper concludes that preventative strategies must be integrated in the national policy frameworks in order to achieve long term economic stability and fair health outcomes amongst the people.  It is a good policy argument based on these findings to invest more in preventive strategies and institutionalize routine economic scrutiny in health-related decision making.