Economic Evaluation of Malaria Control Interventions
Summary
Economic evaluation of malaria control interventions encompasses a range of methodological approaches to quantify both the costs and benefits of strategies aimed at reducing the burden of the disease. Core analyses include cost-of-illness studies, which document the aggregate economic burden on households, health systems and society as a whole, and cost-effectiveness analyses, which compare the additional cost of an intervention with its health gains, often expressed in disability-adjusted life years averted. Interventions span prevention measures such as insecticide-treated bed nets and indoor residual spraying, chemoprevention in vulnerable groups, rapid diagnostic testing and effective treatment regimens. Analyses must account for direct costs (medication, diagnostics, logistics) and indirect costs (lost productivity, opportunity costs of care seeking) to capture the full economic impact. Heterogeneity in epidemiological settings and health-system capacity demands context-specific estimates, yet standardisation of inputs and methods is needed to enhance comparability across studies. Economic evaluations inform priority setting, resource allocation and the design of sustainable financing mechanisms, underpinning global and national efforts to control and ultimately eliminate malaria.
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Economic Evaluation of Malaria Control Interventions publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in economic evaluation of malaria control interventions across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Cost-of-illness study: An economic assessment quantifying all costs associated with a disease, including direct medical expenses and indirect costs such as productivity losses.
Cost-effectiveness analysis: A comparison of the relative costs and health outcomes of two or more interventions, usually expressed as cost per disability-adjusted life year averted.
Incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER): The additional cost required to achieve one additional unit of health outcome when comparing two interventions.
Disability-adjusted life year (DALY): A composite measure of years of healthy life lost due to illness and premature mortality.
Societal perspective: An economic evaluation viewpoint that includes all costs and benefits incurred by any stakeholder, encompassing health systems, households and wider economic impacts.
References
- A propensity score matching analysis using statistical methods for estimating the impact of intervention: The cost of malaria and its impact on the health system. Healthcare Analytics (2023).
- Costs and Cost-Effectiveness of Malaria Control Interventions: A Systematic Literature Review. Value in Health (2021).
- The economics of malaria control and elimination: a systematic review. Malaria Journal (2016).
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