A Framework for Developing the Structure of Public Health Economic Models

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Health Economics
• Modeling and Simulation

Background:

• Public health interventions operate within complex systems, necessitating comprehensive modeling approaches.
• Inadequate models can compromise validity, credibility, and resource allocation in public health economic evaluations.
• Existing conceptual modeling frameworks lack specificity for public health economic evaluation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present the first conceptual modeling framework specifically designed for public health economic evaluation.
• To address the challenges in modeling complex public health interventions and economic evaluations.
• To enhance the quality and credibility of public health economic models.

Main Methods:

• Literature reviews on challenges in public health economic modeling and existing frameworks.
• Qualitative research exploring modelers' experiences in developing public health economic models.
• Piloting a draft version of the conceptual modeling framework.

Main Results:

• The framework includes four key principles: systems approach, documented problem understanding, stakeholder communication, and consideration of health determinants.
• A four-phase methodology is proposed: aligning with decision-making, stakeholder identification, problem understanding, and model development/justification.
• Identified areas for future research include framework evaluation in diverse case studies and methods for modeling behavior.

Conclusions:

• The proposed framework can enhance the quality of public health economic models.
• Improved models support more efficient allocation of limited public health resources.
• This framework offers a structured approach to complex public health economic evaluations.