Cost-Effective Interventions

Interventions are actions taken by or for individuals to reduce the risk, duration, or severity of adverse health conditions. Interventions may be population-based or personal.

DCP2 and GBD present what we know about which health interventions work for a comprehensive range of diseases, injuries, and disabilities in many different contexts. A large share of the disease burden in low- and middle-income countries is attributable to diseases and conditions for which cost-effective interventions are already known and feasible. Selecting the right intervention for a given disease and context matters a great deal. The tools on this page are designed to aid the task.

DCP2 and GBD demonstrate how decision makers could use cost-effectiveness information in combination with information on disease prevalence and avertable illness to determine which interventions should be extended and which ones should be questioned. If developing countries scale up interventions and extend health care services that are cost-effective, the impact on the disease burden could be substantial.

Select Criteria

Disease / Condition	Setting	Type	Objective	Target population

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Condition	Intervention	Intervention type	Intervention description	Intervention setting	Objective	Target population	Cost effectiveness (US$/DALY)	Cost effectiveness estimate (US$)	Cost effectiveness range (US$/DALY)	Number of DALYs averted (hundreds)	Number of deaths averted (hundreds)	Quality of cost-effectiveness analysis evidence
Colorectal cancer	Chemotherapy	Personal	Adjuvant chemotherapy for stage three colon cancer	Local or district hospital	secondary prevention	Adults, Women of childbearing age	-	3,000-7,000 per YLS (High-income countries)	-	-	-	1
Colorectal cancer	Colonoscopy every 10 years	Personal	Colonoscopy allows the physician to look inside the entire large intestine, from the lowest part, the rectum, all the way up through the colon to the lower end of the small intestine. The procedure is used to look for early signs of cancer in the colon an	Local or district hospital	secondary prevention	Adults, Women of childbearing age	-	9309-22,672 per YLS (USA)	-	-	-	2
Colorectal cancer	Double-contrast barium enema every 5 years	Personal	A series of x-rays of the colon and rectum taken after the patient is given an enema, followed by an injection of air. The barium outlines the intestines on the x-rays, allowing many abnormal growths to be visible. This is conducted every 5 years.	Local or district hospital	secondary prevention	Adults, Women of childbearing age	-	11,503-26,393 per YLS (USA)	-	-	-	2
Colorectal cancer	Fecal occult blood test	Population	Fecal occult blood test to check stool samples for traces of blood; conducted annually or biennially	Local or district hospital	secondary prevention	Adults, Women of childbearing age	-	3,200-12,100 per YLS (Highincome countries)	-	-	-	2
Colorectal cancer	Flexible sigmoidoscopy every 5 years with or without fecal occult blood test	Personal	Flexible sigmoidoscopy enables the physician to look at the inside of the large intestine from the rectum through the last part of the colon, called the sigmoid or descending colon; fecal occult blood test checks stool samples for traces of blood.	Local or district hospital	secondary prevention	Adults, Women of childbearing age	-	18,700-25,954 (USA)	-	-	-	2
Colorectal cancer	Radiation therapy	Personal	Preoperative radiation therapy for rectal cancer patients; with varying rates of recurrence and survival advantage with and without radiation treatment	Local or district hospital	secondary prevention	Adults, Women of childbearing age	-	908-15,228 per YLS (Sweden)	-	-	-	1

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Source: Authors
Note: - = not available.