2. Intervention Cost–Effectiveness: Overview of Main Messages

A study by Harvard University in the United States showed potential gains of life years saved by choosing interventions on the basis of their cost-effectiveness. The study's authors assessed more than 500 types of lifesaving interventions, defined as any behavioral or technological strategy that reduces the probability of premature death among a specified target population. The study focused on 185 interventions and the extent to which each intervention was currently being implemented, without taking its cost-effectiveness into account.

The authors estimated that the selected 185 interventions would cost US$21.4 billion per year and would save 592,000 life years. The same amount of money could have saved another 636,000 life years had funds been redirected from less to more cost-effective interventions. Following an assessment of varying factors regarding interventions—those that affect the most people and are the most effective, least cost, and most cost-effective—the study reports that if the goal is to save the most life years, cost-effectiveness is a useful approach that will result in the most efficient allocation of resources. The study indicates that choosing the most cost-effective interventions could double the life years saved.

Sources: Tengs 1997; Tengs and others 1995.