Best practice guidelines recommend that cost-effectiveness analyses (CEAs) of health interventions incorporate societal costs such as productivity, caregiver time, and travel for care.
We used the Tufts-CEVR CEA Registry to examine 7,800 cost-effectiveness studies from 2013–2023. We found that although CEAs are including societal costs more frequently (increasing from 19% to 28% during the study period), most still omit societal costs. Other key findings:
- Results became more favorable in 74% of CEAs when studies included societal costs
- Compared to US-based studies, CEAs from Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands were more likely to include societal costs, while studies from Canada, Australia, and the UK were less likely to include them.
- Studies of pediatric populations were more likely to include societal costs than those focused on the elderly
Many conditions — especially mental health, chronic illness, and pediatric diseases — affect daily life and productivity in ways that traditional analyses miss. Ignoring these broader impacts can misestimate the value of interventions.
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