Estimating the cost of public health interventions: Methodologies and options

Information on the costs of public health interventions is crucial for policy makers to assess whether scarce resources are being used efficiently. There is growing recognition of the importance of cost analyses of health interventions at a local level particularly in developing countries. There are several methods available for costing of public health interventions but each method has its own strengths and weaknesses. This paper gives an outline of the basic principles of estimating costs of public health interventionsand types of costs to be in different perspectives chosen that have a considerable influence on the cost estimates.