Headline Competence (learning outcome):

• Define the concepts of costs, effectiveness, and utility in the context of economic evaluation.
• Identify and describe commonly used measures for assessing costs, such as cost-effectiveness ratios, cost-utility ratios, and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios.
• Describe the 4 main study designs used for economic evaluations (cost minimization study, cost-effectiveness study, cost-utility study, cost-benefit study), and discuss their strengths and weaknesses.
• Conduct a critical appraisal of an economic evaluation article, evaluating its study design, methods, data sources, and analysis techniques.
• Assess the validity, reliability, and generalizability of the results presented in economic evaluation studies.
• Understand how these results can be effectively utilized to inform decisions on resource allocations for health financing.
• Analyze and interpret economic evaluation results in the context of available data and resources in the student's own country or setting.

Assessment Criteria: 

• Describe the way that costs, effectiveness, and utility are measured.
• Understand the principles of the 4 main study designs used for economic evaluations (cost minimization study, cost-effectiveness study, cost-utility study, cost-benefit study).
• Conduct a critical appraisal of an economic evaluation article, reflecting on the application of the results to data that are available in your country's setting.

Approximate time required for the readings for this lesson (at 144 words/minute): 5 hours.