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Searching for benefit-cost analyses addressing interventions in low- and middle-income countries

As many of you know, traditional literature searches can be problematic when looking for completed benefit-cost analyses (BCAs), both because so many are published outside of academic journals and because any combination of search terms seems to be vastly over- or under-inclusive. To address this issue, Lisa Robinson (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) is asking your help to identify completed BCAs that meet the criteria listed below. All she needs is bibliographic information in standard reference format, along with the DOI or URL if available, provided either by using the form here (preferred) or by emailing [email protected]. The analyses she collects will be used to support Volume 3 of the Fourth Edition of the Disease Control Priorities project, "Interventions Implemented Outside the Health Care System" as well as other work. That project aims to compare interventions across policy sectors to identify those likely to most significantly improve health and welfare more generally, taking costs into account. More information is available here. 

Criteria (must meet all SIX):

  1. Conducted between 2008 and the present.
  2. Quantifies impacts on deaths and/or nonfatal illnesses or injuries.
  3. Values both benefits and costs using monetary measures.
  4. Is publicly available and has undergone expert or peer review, as an academic journal article, a book or book chapter, or a report issued by a governmental or nongovernmental organization.
  5. Addresses intervention(s) typically implemented outside the health care system (i.e., that do not involve health care workers, are not reimbursable through health insurance, and/or are not implemented by a health ministry). These interventions may address, for example, environmental, transportation, occupational, nutritional, behavioral, financial, and other risks, including climate change.
  6. Focuses on a country or countries defined as low- or middle-income by the World Bank at some point between 2008 and the present. (Data currently available for 2008 through 2022; see attached list based on https://datahelpdesk.worldbank.org/knowledgebase/articles/906519-world-bank-country-and-lending-groups).