Journal Article

Addressing prevention and management of wasting and nutritional oedema in children requires an improved evidence base on resource use and cost-effectiveness of interventions

Huybregts, Lieven, Dewey, Kathryn G, McCaul, Michael, Golden, Kate, Castro, Mary Christine, Daniel, Allison I, Berkley, James A, Jemutai, Julie, Naude, Celeste E

2025

Overview

DALYs: DALYs attributed to a specific disease or health condition are calculated by adding together the years of life lost due to early death and the years spent living with a disability because of the prevalence of the disease or condition in a population. amore information can be found here16 Suggestions for reporting of resource use and cost-effectiveness Resource use and CE analyses can quickly become very complex, involving various types of costs and health and associated benefits, such as long-term economic productivity estimated using either detailed micro-economic methods (‘bottom-up’ or detailed data collection of all costs incurred) or through gross-costing (‘top-down’ estimation of costs). CE studies on interventions to prevent wasting should not limit the assessment of costs to those for preventing new cases of wasting but should ideally also include the effect on the caseload and potential cost savings for existing wasting treatment services.9 A cost–benefit analysis can further compare prevention costs to treatment cost savings within a given context. [...]based on our observations, studies should describe the standard of care (comparator group) and the associated costs in sufficient detail to allow for a CEA. Comparing the costs for beneficiaries who received the intervention to per-protocol effectiveness results is possible; however, this analysis may be prone to selection bias.10 Caution should be exercised when simulation studies or meta-analyses combine data from effectiveness and efficacy studies.

• Publisher: BMJ Publishing Group Ltd,BMJ Publishing Group LTD,BMJ Publishing Group
• Subject: Beneficiaries / Child health / Commentary / Cost analysis / Cost assessments / Cost control / Data collection / Disease prevention / Economics / Edema / GDP / Global Health / Gross Domestic Product / Health economics / Health policy / Intervention / Nutrition / Opportunity costs / Standard of care