Cost-Benefit Analysis versus Cost-Effectiveness Analysis from a Societal Perspective in Healthcare.

Cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) is the main way that economic evaluations are carried out in the health care field. However, CEA has limited validity in deciding whether any health care evaluation is socially worthwhile and hence justifies funding. Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) is the economic evaluation method that should be used to help decide what to invest in when the objective is to record the impact on everyone in society.

Behavioral versus Biological Definitions of Dementia Symptoms: Recognizing that Worthwhile Interventions already Exist.

Background: The 2018 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures special report includes two new guidelines for measuring dementia symptoms. The first requires that a biomarker (biological factor) be added to a doctor's clinical judgment of the cause of symptoms when determining whether dementia is present. The second involves identifying four stages of dementia: normal cognition, preclinical, MCI and dementia.

A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Hearing Aids, Including the Benefits of Reducing the Symptoms of Dementia.

We carried out a CBA of hearing aids (HAs) in which we estimated the direct utility benefits, and included the indirect utility benefits working through a reduction in dementia symptoms. The benefits methodology involved using QALYs as the outcome measure and then applying the price of a QALY to convert the outcome measure into monetary terms. The price of a QALY was derived from an age specific VSL estimate.

Estimating the monetary benefits of medicare eligibility for reducing the symptoms of dementia.

We adopt a three-component method based on the idea of cost-saving for estimating the monetary benefits of Medicare eligibility for reducing dementia symptoms. The method involves Medicare eligibility lowering dementia symptoms, which reduces the need for dependent living, which in turn lowers caregiving costs. We use the Regression Discontinuity approach to establish a causal link between Medicare eligibility and dementia.

The value of a year's general education for reducing the symptoms of dementia.

We present a method for estimating the benefits of years of education for reducing dementia symptoms based on the cost savings that would accrue from continuing independent living rather than relying on formal or informal carers. Our method for estimating the benefits of education involves three steps: first taking a year of education and seeing how much this lowers dementia, second using this dementia reduction and estimating how much independent living is affected and third applying the change in caregiving costs associated with the independent living change. We apply our method for estimating education benefits to a National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center sample of 17,239 participants at 32 US Alzheimer's disease centres over the period September 2005 and May 2015.

The value of reducing HIV stigma.

HIV-stigma is a major reason why HIV continues to be a global epidemic. Interventions targeting HIV-stigma are therefore necessary. To find an intervention that is worthwhile, a Cost-Benefit Analysis is needed which compares costs and benefits.

The effects of HIV medications on the quality of life of older adults in New York City.

A three-equation model is used to estimate the multiple effects of antiretroviral medications (ARVs) on the quality of life (QoL) of the elderly with HIV in New York City. The transmission mechanism involves the ARVs having a direct effect on QoL via the side effects of the medications and two other effects (one indirect and one reverse) both working through feelings of depression. On a scale of 0 to 100, ARVs raise the QoL by 1 percentage point.

Economic evaluations of HIV prevention in rich countries and the need to focus on the aging of the HIV-positive population.

Purpose Of Review: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stressed testing as a prevention program for HIV/AIDS. Data on the effectiveness of these efforts are now available. The advent of successful antiretroviral (ARV) therapies and longer life expectancies has resulted in an emerging cohort of older adults with HIV.

A social cost-benefit criterion for evaluating Voluntary Counseling and Testing with an application to Tanzania.

Rationale: There are many interventions for HIV/AIDS that require that people know their status and hence require a HIV test. Testing that is driven by a desire to prevent the spread of the disease often has an indirect effect on others. These external effects need to be identified, quantified and included as part of the benefits and costs of testing.

The role of public and private transfers in the cost-benefit analysis of mental health programs.

This paper revisits the issue of whether to include maintenance costs in an economic evaluation in mental health. The source of these maintenance costs may be public or private transfers. The issue is discussed in terms of a formal cost-benefit criterion.