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Setting priorities for health interventions in developing countries: a review of empirical studies
Author(s) -
Youngkong Sitaporn,
Kapiriri Lydia,
Baltussen Rob
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
tropical medicine and international health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.056
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1365-3156
pISSN - 1360-2276
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-3156.2009.02311.x
Subject(s) - developing country , psychological intervention , empirical research , medline , medicine , health care , health policy , environmental health , public health , nursing , economic growth , political science , economics , philosophy , epistemology , law
Summary Objective To assess and summarize empirical studies on priority‐setting in developing countries. Methods Literature review of empirical studies on priority‐setting of health interventions in developing countries in Medline and EMBASE (Ovid) databases. Results Eighteen studies were identified and classified according to their characteristics and methodological approaches. All studies were published after 1999, mostly between 2006 and 2008. Study objectives and methodologies varied considerably. Most studies identified sets of relevant criteria for priority‐setting (17/18) and involved different stakeholders as respondents (11/18). Studies used qualitative (8/15) or quantitative (3/15) techniques, or combinations of these (4/15) to elicit preferences from respondents. In a few studies, respondents deliberated on results (3/18). A minority of studies (7/18) resulted in a rank ordering of interventions. Conclusions This review has revealed an increase in the number of empirical studies on priority‐setting in developing countries in the past decade. Methods for explicit priority‐setting are developing, being reported and are verifiable and replicable and can potentially lead to solutions for ad hoc policy‐making in health care in many developing countries.