Disregarding these method ological obstacles could implicitly lead to discrimination against the elderly in terms of health promotion and disease prevention and , hence , an age-based rationing of public health care
Background In the light of demographic developments health promotion interventions for older people are gaining importance .
In addition to method ological challenges arising from the economic evaluation of health promotion interventions in general , there are specific method ological problems for the particular target group of older people .
There are especially four main method ological challenges that are discussed in the literature .
They concern measurement and valuation of informal caregiving , accounting for productivity costs , effects of unrelated cost in added life years and the inclusion of ‘ beyond-health ’ benefits .
This paper focuses on the question whether and to what extent specific method ological requirements are actually met in applied health economic evaluations .
A cost analysis of a physical activity intervention for older adults.
We examined the costs of a  physical activity ( PA ) and an educational comparison intervention .  424 older adults at risk for mobility disability were r and omly assigned to either condition . The PA program consisted of center-based exercise sessions 3x weekly for 8 weeks , 2x weekly for weeks 9 to 24 and weekly behavioral counseling for 10 weeks . Optional sessions were offered during maintenance weeks ( 25 - 52 ) . The comparison intervention consisted of weekly education meetings for 24 weeks , and then monthly for 6 months . Cost analyses were conducted from the " payer 's " perspective , with a 1-year time horizon . Intervention costs were estimated by tracking personnel activities and material s used for each intervention and multiplying by national unit cost averages . The average cost/participant was $ 1134 and $ 175 for the PA and the comparison interventions , respectively . A preliminary cost/effectiveness analysis gauged the cost/disability avoided to be $ 28,206 . Costs for this PA program for older adults are comparable to those of other PA interventions . The results are preliminary and a longer study is required to fully assess the costs and health benefits of these interventions
Disregarding these method ological obstacles could implicitly lead to discrimination against the elderly in terms of health promotion and disease prevention and , hence , an age-based rationing of public health care
Background In the light of demographic developments health promotion interventions for older people are gaining importance .
In addition to method ological challenges arising from the economic evaluation of health promotion interventions in general , there are specific method ological problems for the particular target group of older people .
There are especially four main method ological challenges that are discussed in the literature .
They concern measurement and valuation of informal caregiving , accounting for productivity costs , effects of unrelated cost in added life years and the inclusion of ‘ beyond-health ’ benefits .
This paper focuses on the question whether and to what extent specific method ological requirements are actually met in applied health economic evaluations .