Economic Evaluation of Preventive Healthcare: A Cost Benefit Analysis of a Parenting Program

Nina Ponikvar (), Marija Anderluh (), Eva Strmljan Kreslin () and Mojca Marc ()
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Nina Ponikvar: University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Marija Anderluh: Department for Child Psychiatry of the Division for Paediatrics in Ljubljana, Slovenia
Eva Strmljan Kreslin: Mala ulica Family Centre, Slovenia
Mojca Marc: University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

Eurasian Journal of Social Sciences, 2021, vol. 9, issue 2, 89-97

Abstract: The positive impact of parenting programs on the health and wellbeing of individuals and their immediate community has been confirmed in many studies. Often, and especially during the Covid-19 pandemics, prevention health programs are stalled due to other policy priorities. Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) can be used for the economic evaluation of public health programs to support evidence-based health policies and allows the comparison of the monetized effects of programs across different societal domains. However, CBA requires a variety of data that are typically difficult to obtain. Using the Incredible Years (IY) parenting program case, we illustrate how CBA can be practically applied. For parenting programs, the positive effects arise exclusively in non-monetary form as benefits arising from avoiding adverse effects in society. We show how to monetize them by estimating the avoided costs of healthcare, educational, and other societal costs due to the program's implementation. At a 4% social discount rate, the economic net present value is positive and high, showing that the present value of the program's benefits exceeds the costs of the program by almost €800 thousand. The benefit-to-cost index of 5.6 confirms that every € invested in the program brings benefits of €5.6 in monetary terms. Cost-benefit analysis provides a convincing foundation for distributing public funds as it allows for a comparison of field-related programs and programs from different fields. Consequently, they increase any public policy's effectiveness and efficiency, but especially preventive health policy.

Keywords: Economic Evaluation; Cost-Benefit Analysis; Parenting Programs; Incredible Years (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ejn:ejssjr:v:9:y:2021:i:2:p:89-97

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