Taking a snapshot of the economics of prevention

Project title: Census of published economic evaluations of primary prevention strategies and interventions
Start date: May 2014
End date: June 2017
This project is finished.
What is the issue?
Public health advocates and policy makers argue for a greater share of health resources to go to prevention and health promotion, but little is known about which interventions offer the best health returns. Also, there is little sense of what the economic literature in health promotion looks like overall – that is, where is the economic evidence plentiful and where is it lacking?
How did the project address the issue?
The project took a snapshot of the current state of the economic evidence as it relates to prevention and health promotion. It aimed to categorise all published economic evaluations of primary prevention interventions relevant to health policy in Australia, identifying areas where the economic evidence is plentiful and areas where more evaluation has to be done.
Relevance for practice
By identifying areas where the economic evidence is scant and where a new evaluation project might add value, this project will help to identify priorities for research to support the agenda of the Prevention Centre and our partners.
Project lead
- Professor Alan Shiell, La Trobe University
Project team
- Hannah Jackson, La Trobe University
- Diane Lorenzetti, University of Calgary
This project was funded by the NHMRC, Australian Government Department of Health, NSW Ministry of Health, ACT Health and the HCF Research Foundation.
Expenditure on Preventive Health
Launch of final report, Preventive health: How much does Australia spend and is it enough?
Report
Publications
2018
- Joncy J. (Ed.). How would you spend $100 million a year on preventive health? [Special issue]. Health Promot J Austral. July 2018;29:S1. Available from: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/22011617/2018/29/S1 doi.org/10.1002/hpja.52
- Shiell A, Jackson H. How much does Australia Spend on Prevention and How Would we know Whether it is Enough? Health Promot J Austr. 2018;doi: 10.1002/hpja.165. [epub ahead of print]
2017
- Jackson, H and Shiell A. Investing in preventive health: Is Australia spending enough? The Health Advocate.
Prevention Centre news
- July 2018: What would you do with $100 million dollars for prevention? A UK perspective
- June 2017: Increasing spending on prevention is cost-effective: report
Other news
- Croakey, 24 July 2018. What would you do with a hundred million dollars for prevention? A UK perspective
- FARE’s blog drinktank July 2017. Goldilocks and the money spent on preventive health
- Croakey, 14 June 2017. Prevention a prescription for better health in Australia
- AJP 14 June 2017. Australia ranks poorly in preventive health