A Framework for the Economic Analysis of Data Collection Methods for Vital Statistics

Eliana Jimenez-Soto, Andrew Hodge, Kim-Huong Nguyen, Zoe Dettrick and Alan D Lopez

PLOS ONE, 2014, vol. 9, issue 8, 1-12

Abstract: Background: Over recent years there has been a strong movement towards the improvement of vital statistics and other types of health data that inform evidence-based policies. Collecting such data is not cost free. To date there is no systematic framework to guide investment decisions on methods of data collection for vital statistics or health information in general. We developed a framework to systematically assess the comparative costs and outcomes/benefits of the various data methods for collecting vital statistics. Methodology: The proposed framework is four-pronged and utilises two major economic approaches to systematically assess the available data collection methods: cost-effectiveness analysis and efficiency analysis. We built a stylised example of a hypothetical low-income country to perform a simulation exercise in order to illustrate an application of the framework. Findings: Using simulated data, the results from the stylised example show that the rankings of the data collection methods are not affected by the use of either cost-effectiveness or efficiency analysis. However, the rankings are affected by how quantities are measured. Conclusion: There have been several calls for global improvements in collecting useable data, including vital statistics, from health information systems to inform public health policies. Ours is the first study that proposes a systematic framework to assist countries undertake an economic evaluation of DCMs. Despite numerous challenges, we demonstrate that a systematic assessment of outputs and costs of DCMs is not only necessary, but also feasible. The proposed framework is general enough to be easily extended to other areas of health information.

Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0106234 (text/html)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id= ... 06234&type=printable (application/pdf)

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:plo:pone00:0106234

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0106234

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in PLOS ONE from Public Library of Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by plosone ().