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Primordial
prevention actions should reflect economic impacts and value from a societal
perspective. As such, a society with limited resources should determine
which interventions have the most value. Cost-effectiveness analysis is the
most often used approach for economic evaluation of a medical or health care
strategy. In concert with this and a ‘fixed’ monetary allocation for health,
policy makers want the greatest return on their investment. For example,
studies of smoking cessation intervention suggest that cost per year of
saved life is small compared with other interventions. Prevention of death
from one disease may not be a valuable outcome if overall life expectancy is
not changed because of another significant illness. An obstacle in an
investment in prevention is the public expectation that such an investment
should pay for itself. |