Benefit and Cost Analysis in Geriatric Care

CONSIDERABLE enthusiasm has developed in recent years about the use of quantitative methods to guide the allocation of health-care resources. These approaches attempt to assign specific numerical values to the benefits of medical interventions of various kinds, as well as to their costs. Once quantified, costs and outcomes are then compared to indicate which health-care interventions make the most efficient use of available resources. Cost-benefit analysis reduces all factors to a common unit of measurement, generally dollars; cost-effectiveness analysis likewise expresses treatment costs in dollars, but leaves out-comes in terms more recognizable to the clinician—e.g., number of patients with hypertension . . .