ABSTRACT

Economic evaluation compares the costs and consequences of alternative health interventions. This information is used by decision makers (including national and local commissioners) to allocate resources sufficiently to improve population’s health. In the UK, for example, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence public health methods guidelines therefore requires economic evaluations of public health interventions to provide a full and reliable coverage of health effects and resource costs associated with the alternative courses of actions. The rationale for this is apparent: the money spent on public health interventions could be allocated to other healthcare activities and it is important to determine whether public health interventions offer comparable or superior health outcomes for a similar level of expenditure. The application of economic evaluation methods to public health interventions including physical activity, however, presents a number of challenges particularly around attributing effects to interventions and capturing changes in behaviour overtime. This chapter will describe the application of economic evaluation techniques to evaluate two physical activity interventions – the General Practitioner (GP) brief advice and Exercise referral schemes – highlighting the associated challenges and how they have been addressed to date.