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.