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Benefit‐Cost Methodology in the Evaluation of Therapeutic Services for Alcoholism
Author(s) -
Rundell O.H.,
Paredes Alfonso
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
alcoholism: clinical and experimental research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.267
H-Index - 153
eISSN - 1530-0277
pISSN - 0145-6008
DOI - 10.1111/j.1530-0277.1979.tb05331.x
Subject(s) - sobriety , profitability index , cost–benefit analysis , risk analysis (engineering) , resource (disambiguation) , environmental economics , actuarial science , operations management , business , economics , operations research , computer science , medicine , psychiatry , engineering , finance , ecology , computer network , biology
Benefit‐cost analysis as a form of “social profitability analysis” can be a powerful tool in the overall evaluation of alcoholism treatment efforts. Alcoholism treatment potentially leads to a multiplicity of benefits in addition to sobriety. Benefit‐cost analysis provides a methodology for converting many of these diverse benefits into a common metric (dollars). thereby allowing the comparison of aggregate benefits and treatment costs. The analysis thus leads to the expression of treatment outcome in terms of the return on investment. A benefit‐cost analysis conducted on 3034 clients from the Oklahoma data base indicated a return to society of $1.98 for every $1 invested in alcoholism treatment. Such data may represent a critical portion of the information required for responsible resource allocation decisions.