%0 Journal Article
%T A systematic review of economic evaluations of health and health-related interventions in Bangladesh
%A Mohammad E Hoque
%A Jahangir AM Khan
%A Shahed SA Hossain
%A Rukhsana Gazi
%A Harun-ar Rashid
%A Tracey P Koehlmoos
%A Damian G Walker
%J Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation
%D 2011
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1478-7547-9-12
%X Literature searches was carried out during November-December 2008 with a combination of key words, MeSH terms and other free text terms as suitable for the purpose. A comprehensive search strategy was developed to search Medline by the PubMed interface. The first specific interest was mapping the articles considering the areas of exploration by economic evaluation and the second interest was to scrutiny the methodological quality of studies. The methodological quality of economic evaluation of all articles has been scrutinized against the checklist developed by Evers Silvia and associates.Of 1784 potential articles 12 were accepted for inclusion. Ten studies described the competing alternatives clearly and only two articles stated the perspective of their articles clearly. All studies included direct cost, incurred by the providers. Only one study included the cost of community donated resources and volunteer costs. Two studies calculated the incremental cost effectiveness ratio (ICER). Six of the studies applied some sort of sensitivity analysis. Two of the studies discussed financial affordability of expected implementers and four studies discussed the issue of generalizability for application in different context.Very few economic evaluation studies in Bangladesh are found in different areas of health and health-related interventions, which does not provide a strong basis of knowledge in the area. The most frequently applied economic evaluation is cost-effectiveness analysis. The majority of the studies did not follow the scientific method of economic evaluation process, which consequently resulted into lack of robustness of the analyses. Capacity building on economic evaluation of health and health-related programs should be enhanced.Resource scarcity is a common reality in the health sectors of low income countries. Given that the allocation and identification of additional resources is a major political decision and a long-term planning issue for government, m
%U http://www.resource-allocation.com/content/9/1/12