Economic Evaluation seminar - The PHEM-B toolbox of methods for incorporating the influences on Behaviour into Public Health Economic Models

Event details

Abstract:

Studies testing the effectiveness of public health policies, like stop smoking campaigns or exercise classes, often report outcomes at 6 or 12 months. To inform policy decisions, it is useful to predict the relative costs and benefits of these policies over a longer period. Health economic models can be used to do this, but they often make simple assumptions about the impact of policies on longer term behaviour, based on little evidence or theory. These assumptions can greatly affect model results. To date, there has been little research about how to model behaviour within health economic models. Professor Squires will present the PHEM-B toolbox of methods which aims to help modellers incorporate the influences on behaviour into public health economic models. The development of the toolbox brought together 20 experts from a range of disciplines including health economic modelling, complexity science, psychology, sociology and behavioural economics. The authors identified 12 methods which can be used to include influences on behaviours into public health economic models. For each method, a description is given, with key references. How the method can bring behavioural influences into the model and the minimum resources needed are also set out. The authors provide a decision framework to help users decide which methods would be best given the type of problem and the policy context. The project also identified weaknesses in current behavioural theories, methods and the data available and hence an agenda for further research will be described. 

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