Incorporating concerns for equal lifetime health in evaluations of public health programs

Bjarne Robberstad and Ole F. Norheim

Social Science & Medicine, 2011, vol. 72, issue 10, 1711-1716

Abstract: Economic evaluations are increasingly common as evidence in priority setting decisions, but lack of quantification of equity impact represents a situation of asymmetric information that easily lead to discrepancies between stated preferences for distribution of health care and the preferences revealed in actual priority setting. We suggest Gini impact and Achievement Index methodology as tools that can be used to incorporate concerns for equal lifetime health in numerical evaluation of public health programs. In a case study from Tanzania we explore how these techniques may diminish this information asymmetry. By comparing a childhood vaccine with treatment of hypertension in adults, we show that concerns for equity in the distribution of healthy years can be captured with standard measures of inequality and combined with a maximization concern. This illustrative case from a low-income setting, where resources are insufficient to meet the needs of both patient groups, illustrates how quantification of equity impact may change priorities.

Keywords: Tanzania; Economic; evaluation; Cost-effectiveness; Equity; Gini; index; Achievement; index; Pneumococcal; vaccine; Hypertension; treatment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953611002061
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:72:y:2011:i:10:p:1711-1716

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().