Abstract
The authors review the methodology and findings of economic evaluations of 42 community mental health care programs reported in the English-language literature between 1979 and 2003. There were three substantial methodological problems in the literature: costs were often not completely specified, the quality of econometric analysis was often low, and most evaluations failed to integrate cost and health outcome information. Well-conducted research shows that care in the community dominates hospital in-patient care, achieving better outcomes at lower or equal cost. It is less clear what types of community programs are most cost-effective. Future research should focus on identifying which types of community care are most cost effective and at what level of intensity they are most effective.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 503-543 |
Number of pages | 41 |
Journal | Medical Care Research and Review |
Volume | 62 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 2005 |
Keywords
- Community mental health care
- Cost-effectiveness analysis
- Economic evaluation
- Literature review