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Health Technology Assessment of Public Health Interventions Published 2012 to 2016: An Analysis of Characteristics and Comparison of Methods

Part of: Special Collection - Methods

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2019

Stephanie Polus Open the ORCID record for Stephanie Polus [Opens in a new window] ,
Tim Mathes ,
Corinna Klingler ,
Melanie Messer ,
Ansgar Gerhardus ,
Constance Stegbauer ,
Gerald Willms ,
Heidi Ehrenreich ,
Georg Marckmann  and
Dawid Pieper
Stephanie Polus
Affiliation:
Institute for Research in Operative Medicine (IFOM), Witten/Herdecke University, Germany
Tim Mathes
Affiliation:
Institute for Research in Operative Medicine (IFOM), Witten/Herdecke University, Germany
Corinna Klingler
Affiliation:
Institute of Ethics, History & Theory of Medicine, LMU Munich, Germany
Melanie Messer
Affiliation:
Bielefeld University, Faculty of Health Science, Germany
Ansgar Gerhardus
Affiliation:
Department for Health Services Research, Institute for Public Health and Nursing Research, University of Bremen, Germany Health Sciences Bremen, University of Bremen
Constance Stegbauer
Affiliation:
aQua Institute for Applied Quality Improvement and Research in Health Care, Germany
Gerald Willms
Affiliation:
aQua Institute for Applied Quality Improvement and Research in Health Care, Germany
Heidi Ehrenreich
Affiliation:
AOK-Bundesverband, Germany
Georg Marckmann
Affiliation:
Institute of Ethics, History & Theory of Medicine, LMU Munich, Germany
Dawid Pieper*
Affiliation:
Institute for Research in Operative Medicine (IFOM), Witten/Herdecke University, Germany
*
Author for correspondence: Dawid Pieper, E-mail: dawid.pieper@uni-wh.de
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Abstract

Objectives

The aim of this study was to provide an overview of the methodological characteristics and compare the assessment methods applied in health technology assessments (HTAs) of public health interventions (PHIs).

Methods

We defined a PHI as a population-based intervention on health promotion or for primary prevention of chronic or nonchronic diseases. HTAs on PHIs were identified by systematically searching the Web pages of members of international HTA networks. We included only full HTA reports published between 2012 and 2016. Two reviewers extracted data on the methods used to assess effectiveness/safety, as well as on economic, social, cultural, ethical, and legal aspects using a-priori standardized tables.

Results

We included ten HTAs provided by four different organizations. Of these, all reports assessed the effectiveness of the interventions and conducted economic evaluations, seven investigated social/cultural aspects, and four each considered legal and ethical aspects, respectively. Some reports addressed applicability, context/setting, and intervention fidelity issues in different ways. We found that most HTAs adapted their methods to some extent, for example, by including nonrandomized studies, expanding the search strategy, involving stakeholders, or applying a framework to guide the HTA process.

Conclusions

Our analysis provides a comprehensive overview of methods applied in HTAs on public health interventions. We found that a heterogeneous set of approaches is used to deal with the challenges of evaluating complex public health interventions.

Keywords

Public healthhealth promotionhealth technology assessmentmethodology review
Type
Method
Information
International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care , Volume 35 , Issue 4 , 2019 , pp. 280 - 290
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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