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Five‐Hundred Life‐Saving Interventions and Their Cost‐Effectiveness
Author(s) -
Tengs Tammy O.,
Adams Miriam E.,
Pliskin Joseph S.,
Safran Dana Gelb,
Siegel Joanna E.,
Weinstein Milton C.,
Graham John D.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
risk analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.972
H-Index - 130
eISSN - 1539-6924
pISSN - 0272-4332
DOI - 10.1111/j.1539-6924.1995.tb00330.x
Subject(s) - psychological intervention , comparability , years of potential life lost , cost effectiveness , activity based costing , intervention (counseling) , cost–benefit analysis , population , medicine , operations management , actuarial science , life expectancy , environmental health , business , risk analysis (engineering) , engineering , mathematics , ecology , combinatorics , marketing , psychiatry , biology
We gathered information on the cost‐effectiveness of life‐saving interventions in the United States from publicly available economic analyses. “Life‐saving interventions” were defined as any behavioral and/or technological strategy that reduces the probability of premature death among a specified target population. We defined cost‐effectiveness as the net resource costs of an intervention per year of life saved. To improve the comparability of cost‐effectiveness ratios arrived at with diverse methods, we established fixed definitional goals and revised published estimates, when necessary and feasible, to meet these goals. The 587 interventions identified ranged from those that save more resources than they cost, to those costing more than 10 billion dollars per year of life saved. Overall, the median intervention costs $42,000 per life‐year saved. The median medical intervention costs $19,000/life‐year; injury reduction $48,000/life‐year; and toxin control $2,800,000/life‐year. Cost/life‐year ratios and bibliographic references for more than 500 life‐saving interventions are provided.