Economics of Population Health Interventions

Finding out what works to improve population health is just part of the research agenda. To decide where we might best invest scarce time and effort we also need to know whether the benefits provided by successful interventions are worth the costs. This is the focus of the Centre’s third stream of work – in the economics of population health interventions.

The economics program asks questions such as what is the best way to get people more physically active. Do people need more information about the benefits of physical activity? Do they need more programs to help them become active? Or is it better merely to provide more opportunities for people to be active in their daily lives (by providing places for people to walk to)?

As well as evaluating the cost-effectiveness of programs in schools, neighbourhoods and worksites, we are also undertaking several reviews of the available economic evidence to establish what is known about the economic value of population health interventions. For more information on the research projects being undertaken as part of our economics program, go to the research page of our website.

Economic arguments in favour of health promotion

Feature publications:

van der Pol M, Shiell A, Au F, Tough S, Johnston D. Eliciting preferences for health care: a case study of perinatal care. Health Expectancies (in press).

Madden L, King L, Shiell A. How do government health departments in Australia access health economics advice to inform decisions for health? A survey. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Health Policy 2009;6:6.

Shiell A. Still waiting for the great leap forward. Health Economics, Policy and Law 2009;4:255-260.

Shiell A, Hawe P, Perry R, Matthias S. How health managers understand risk: The implication for portfolio thinking in health systems. Health, Risk and Society 2009;11(1):71-85.

Roberts H, Shiell A, Stevens M. What works, what counts and what matters? Communities of practice as a locus for contributing to resource allocation decisions. Chapter 9. In le May A. (Ed) Communities of Practice in Health and Social Care. Oxford, Blackwell publishing, 2008.

Au F, Prahardi S, Shiell A. Reliability of two instruments for critical assessment of economic evaluations. Value in Health 2008;11:435-439.

Lucas P, McIntosh K, Petticrew M, Roberts H, Shiell A. Financial benefits for child health and well-being in low income or socially disadvantaged families in developed world countries. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2008 Apr 16;(2):CD006358.

Shiell A. The danger in conservative framing of a complex, systems-level issue. Healthcare Papers 2008;9:42-45.

Shiell A, Hawe P, Gold L. Complex interventions or complex systems? Implications for health economic evaluation. British Medical Journal 2008;336:1281-1283.

Shiell A, McIntosh K. Subject variation not values clarification explains the reliability of WTP estimates. Health Economics 2008;17(2):287-292.

van der Pol M, Shiell A, Au F, Tough S, Johnston D. Convergent validity between a discrete choice experiment and a direct, open-ended method: Comparison of preferred attribute levels and WTP estimates. Social Science and Medicine 2008;67:2043-2050.

Shiell A, McIntosh K, Hawe P. A review of methods for the economic evaluation of Canada’s investment in early child development. Public Health Agency of Canada (for internal use only). June 2008.

McIntosh K, Shiell A, Hawe P, Lorenzetti D. A systematic review of the economic evidence supporting investment in early child development. Public Health Agency of Canada (for internal use only). June 2008.

de Salazar L, Jackson S, Shiell A. Guide to Economic Evaluation in Health Promotion, Washington DC, Pan American Health Organisation, 2007

Gold L, Shiell A, Hawe P, Riley T, Rankin B, Smithers P. The costs of a community based intervention to promote maternal health. Health Education Research 2007;22:648-657

Au F, Shiell A, van der Pol M, Johnston D, Tough S. Does supplementary prenatal nursing and home visiting reduce the costs of healthcare in the year after birth? Journal of Advanced Nursing 2006;56: 657-668

Shiell A, McIntosh K. Some economics of health promotion: what we know, don’t know, and need to know before deciding how much to spend on promoting the public’s health. Harvard Health Policy Review 2006;7:21-31

Rush B, Shiell A, Hawe P. A census of economic evaluations in health promotion. Health Education Research 2004;19:720-729