Economic Return on Investment of Parent Training Programmes for the Prevention of Child Externalising Behaviour...

Area of Science:

• Health Economics
• Child Psychology
• Public Health Policy

Background:

• Economic models are increasingly used to evaluate preventive health interventions.
• Estimates of long-term economic returns for parenting interventions targeting child mental health are scarce.
• Parenting interventions aim to prevent mental health issues in children aged 5-12.

Purpose of the Study:

• To model the economic returns of parenting interventions for child mental health prevention.
• To assess the value-for-money of these interventions in a Swedish context.
• To inform resource allocation decisions for local authorities.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from a randomized controlled trial of five indicated parenting interventions.
• Modeled economic returns based on reduced healthcare and education sector costs.
• Incorporated increased long-term productivity into the economic analyses.
• Conducted analyses on the original trial population and simulated local community populations.

Main Results:

• Positive benefit-cost ratios were observed across analyses.
• Interventions demonstrated good value-for-money, with financial break-even even for smaller local authorities.
• Economic modeling indicated significant long-term returns on investment.

Conclusions:

• Parenting interventions for preventing child mental health problems are economically viable.
• Benefit-cost analyses can strengthen the evidence base for resource allocation in local decision-making.
• Investing in these interventions yields substantial economic benefits through reduced societal costs.