Cost-Effectiveness

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Cost-effectiveness is determined by comparing two or more alternative interventions to determine which produces the most of the desired result.

For example:

Determine the cost of added CHW services per additional low- birth-weight delivery prevented
Compare this return with those of other interventions to prevent such deliveries

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Stakeholders may require either of two measures of the economic value of interventions involving CHWs as evidence: cost-effectiveness or return on investment.

Cost-effectiveness is determined by comparing two or more alternative interventions to determine which produces the most of the desired result, such as cases of disease prevented, for the least amount of added cost. In the example shown here, the desired result is to prevent or reduce low-birth-weight deliveries. Models of each intervention under consideration would be developed to estimate the total cost of each and how many low- birth-weight deliveries each prevented. The interventions would then be ranked in order of increasing effectiveness (total desired results) and compared on the basis of the marginal cost per additional result.