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Methods for incorporating health equity impacts in economic evaluation with applications to low and middle income countries

Monday 15 June 2015, 12.30PM to 1.30pm

Speaker(s): Andrew Mirelman, Centre for Health Economics

Abstract: Standard methods of health economic evaluation focus on the policy goal of improving total population health and ignore wider concerns about reducing health inequalities. In this work, we look at health inequalities related to differences across social groups and in non-health consequences as outlined by Norheim et al. (2014). This includes inequalities such as when life expectancy at birth is associated with parental income, education and ethnicity. Several reviews have previously identified the variety of approaches that can be used to incorporate equity into economic evaluation (Cookson 2009; Johri 2012; Sassi 2001). We begin by categorizing the approaches into four groups: an equity evidence review, an equity constraint analysis, an equity distribution analysis and an equity trade-off analysis. Defining the key characteristics of each group, we show how the different inequality approaches provide policymakers with different information about the health inequality impacts of an intervention. For each methodological approach, we illustrate the advantages and disadvantages of its use in order to guide decision-makers on the conditions (data, decision problem, assumptions, etc.) that would favour using each one. As health decision-makers are faced with a multitude of methods that can be used for understanding the equity impacts of health-planning, we hope this work provides a return to understanding of the basic tenets underlying different methodological approaches and issues to consider to when they are used in contexts of low- and middle-income countries.

Location: ARRC Auditorium A/RC/014

Who to contact

For more information on these seminars, contact:
Alfredo Palacios
alfredo.palacios@york.ac.uk
Shainur Premji
shainur.premji@york.ac.uk

If you are not a member of University of York staff and are interested in attending a seminar, please contact
alfredo.palacios@york.ac.uk 
or
shainur.premji@york.ac.uk 
so that we can ensure we have sufficient space

Economic evaluation seminar dates

  • Thursday 8 December
    Ana Duarte, University of York