Economic evaluation. Part 1: Introduction to the concepts of economic evaluation in health care.

The past three decades have seen a rapid growth in the discipline of health economics, particularly in the area of economic evaluation of health care interventions. The aim of this article is to provide an introduction to the concepts of economic evaluation in health care, and the methodological issues pertaining to the identification, measurement and valuation of costs and benefits. In a subsequent article it will be shown how costs and benefits can be combined together in an economic evaluation framework.1 The main established forms of economic evaluation will be described, and the reader will be introduced to the cost-effectiveness plane, a useful tool for reporting and presenting economic evaluation results. Throughout both articles particular reference to issues around family planning and reproductive health care will be made where possible.