Valuing Our Communities: Ethical Considerations for Economic Evaluation of Community‐Based Prevention |
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| Authors: | Max Crowley Damon Jones |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA;2. Prevention Economics Planning & Research Network, State College, PA, USA |
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| Abstract: | Restricted public budgets and increasing efforts to link the impact of community interventions to public savings have increased the use of economic evaluation. While this type of evaluation can be important for program planning, it also raises important ethical issues about how we value the time of local stakeholders who support community interventions. In particular, researchers navigate issues of scientific accuracy, institutional inequality, and research utility in their pursuit of even basic cost estimates. We provide an example of how we confronted these issues when estimating the costs of a large‐scale community‐based intervention. Principles for valuing community members’ time and conducting economic evaluations of community programs are discussed. |
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| Keywords: | Ethics Economic evaluation Community‐based prevention Cost analysis |
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