A METHODOLOGY FOR ESTIMATING THE COSTS AND BENEFITS OF HEALTH PROMOTION

The publication of 'The Health of the Nation' [Department of Health (1 992) The Health of the Nation. A Strategy for the Health of England. C M 1986, HMSO.] has added increased emphasis to the long standing debat e concerning the relative cost-effectiveness of health prevention vers us health cure. The benefits arising from curative interventions are h ighly visible, occur in identifiable individuals and can be quantified using an increasing stock of clinical and quality of life measures. U nfortunately the benefits of health promotion activities are much more difficult to quantify and measure given that their success depends up on ill health not occurring. In order for health promotion to effectiv ely compete for limited health care resources it must ensure that the benefits of its work are apparent to policy makers. This paper describ es a methodology by which such benefits can be quantified in readily m easurable terms. This enables health promotion to make an effective ca se for additional resources using 'hard' quantified data that emphasiz es the value for money and health gain (or rather the prevention of he alth loss) that can be derived from interventions of this nature. The methodology is based on readily available data relating to the levels of morbidity and mortality experienced by any given population. Epidem iological data is then utilized to quantify the link between ill healt h and the problem being addressed by the health promotion activity. Th e model described in this paper was tested in relation to the anticipa ted impact of an anti-smoking programme upon the health experience of the population within the North West of England