Cost-Effectiveness Analysis in Disease Control Priorities, Third Edition

League tables, which rank the cost-effectiveness of health interventions, are a useful input for prioritizing health expenditures, especially for national health budgets. They have been used as policy tools for high-income countries (HICs), including a comprehensive analysis for Australia (Vos and others 2010) and a similar analysis for cancer across HICs (Greenberg and others 2010). Some low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), such as Mexico, have also used league tables in their policy-making process (Salomon and others 2012).

For LMICs as a group, two major reviews of cost-effectiveness have informed strategies to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) (Evans and others 2005; Laxminarayan, Chow, and Shahid-Salles 2006). However, cost-effectiveness is not the only important criterion for policy choice; sustainability, equity, and affordability, among others, also matter. Nevertheless, cost-effectiveness provides a useful and comprehensible reference point.

As strategies and priorities are set for the Sustainable Development Goals and countries consider the transition to universal health coverage, updating the previous reviews for LMICs is appropriate. This chapter synthesizes the results from recent analyses in six different disease areas to provide a comprehensive, updated comparison across a broad range of conditions; to examine changes during the past 10–12 years; and to highlight research gaps.