Cost-effectiveness of active transport for primary school children - Walking School Bus program
- PDF / 1,312,259 Bytes
- 11 Pages / 610 x 792 pts Page_size
- 81 Downloads / 155 Views
BioMed Central
Open Access
Research
Cost-effectiveness of active transport for primary school children - Walking School Bus program Marjory Moodie*1, Michelle Haby2, Leah Galvin3, Boyd Swinburn4 and Robert Carter1 Address: 1Deakin Health Economics, Public Health Research Evaluation and Policy Cluster, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood, Victoria 3125, Australia , 2Public Health Branch, Department of Human Services, 50 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia, 3School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood, Victoria 3125, Australia and 4WHO Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood, Victoria 3125, Australia Email: Marjory Moodie* - [email protected]; Michelle Haby - [email protected]; Leah Galvin - [email protected]; Boyd Swinburn - [email protected]; Robert Carter - [email protected] * Corresponding author
Published: 14 September 2009 International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity 2009, 6:63
doi:10.1186/1479-5868-6-63
Received: 23 January 2009 Accepted: 14 September 2009
This article is available from: http://www.ijbnpa.org/content/6/1/63 © 2009 Moodie et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract Background: To assess from a societal perspective the incremental cost-effectiveness of the Walking School Bus (WSB) program for Australian primary school children as an obesity prevention measure. The intervention was modelled as part of the ACE-Obesity study, which evaluated, using consistent methods, thirteen interventions targeting unhealthy weight gain in Australian children and adolescents. Methods: A logic pathway was used to model the effects on body mass index [BMI] and disabilityadjusted life years [DALYs] of the Victorian WSB program if applied throughout Australia. Cost offsets and DALY benefits were modelled until the eligible cohort reached 100 years of age or death. The reference year was 2001. Second stage filter criteria ('equity', 'strength of evidence', 'acceptability', feasibility', sustainability' and 'side-effects') were assessed to incorporate additional factors that impact on resource allocation decisions. Results: The modelled intervention reached 7,840 children aged 5 to 7 years and cost $AUD22.8M ($16.6M; $30.9M). This resulted in an incremental saving of 30 DALYs (7:104) and a net cost per DALY saved of $AUD0.76M ($0.23M; $3.32M). The evidence base was judged as 'weak' as there are no data available documenting the increase in the number of children walking due to the intervention. The high costs of the current approach may limit sustainability. Conclusion: Under current modelling assumptions, the WSB program is not an effective or coste
Data Loading...
