Abstract

Background

Chronic diseases, or non-communicable diseases (NCD), are conditions of long duration and often influenced and contributed by complex interactions of several variables, including genetic, physiological, environmental, and behavioral factors. These conditions contribute to death, disability, and subsequent health care costs. Primary and secondary school settings provide an opportunity to deliver relatively low cost and effective interventions to improve public health outcomes. However, there lacks systematic evidence on the cost-effectiveness of these interventions.

Methods

We systematically searched four databases (PubMed/Medline, Cochrane, Embase, and Web of Science) for published studies on the cost-effectiveness of chronic-disease interventions in school settings. Studies were eligible for inclusion if they assessed interventions of any chronic or non-communicable disease, were conducted in a school setting, undertook a full cost-effectiveness analysis and were available in English, Spanish, or French.

Results

Our review identified 1029 articles during our initial search of the databases, and after screening, 33 studies were included in our final analysis. The most used effectiveness outcome measures were summary effectiveness units such as quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) (22 articles; 67%) or disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) (4 articles; 12%). The most common health condition for which an intervention targets is overweight and obesity. Almost all school-based interventions were found to be cost-effective (30 articles; 81%).

Conclusion

Our review found evidence to support a number of cost-effective school-based interventions targeting NCDs focused on vaccination, routine physical activity, and supplement delivery interventions. Conversely, many classroom-based cognitive behavioral therapy for mental health and certain multi-component interventions for obesity were not found to be cost-effective.

Details

Title
The cost-effectiveness of school-based interventions for chronic diseases: a systematic review
Author
Lin, George; Kalin, Werner; Alqunaiebet, Ada; Hamza, Mariam M; Alkanhal, Norah; Alsukait, Reem F; Alruwaily, Amaal; Rakic, Severin; Cetinkaya, Volkan; Herbst, Christopher H; Tracy Kuo Lin
Pages
1-12
Section
Review
Publication year
2024
Publication date
2024
Publisher
BioMed Central
e-ISSN
1478-7547
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
3037868547
Copyright
© 2024. This work is licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.