Health promotion programs have been hailed as having great potential to help solve the problem of rapidly increasing health care costs. In order to assess whether health promotion programs are “worth it,” some kind of cost-benefit or cost-effectiveness analysis must be included as part of program evaluation. This article provides a basic introduction to the concepts of cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis, compares them, and presents a simple procedure for performing a basic cost-effectiveness analysis. The potential for health promotion programs to impact on the rising costs of medical care is discussed.
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