Cost-effectiveness of public health interventions - a new methodological approach

Background The goal of public health interventions is to move the distribution of life style risk factors in a healthier direction to decrease disability-causing disease and improve quality of life in the population. We recently presented a novel method to estimate the population-level impact of a public health intervention, using changes in the distribution curve of the outcome of interest. This method makes it possible to calculate the proportion of the target population that benefited from an intervention. The objective of this study is to demonstrate the potential of the new method to estimate not only the effect, but also the costeffectiveness of public health interventions.