Developing a Program Costs Checklist of Digital Health Interventions: A Scoping Review and Empirical Case Study

Area of Science:

• Health Economics
• Digital Health Interventions
• Cost Analysis

Background:

• Digital health interventions (DHIs) have advanced rapidly, outpacing economic evaluation methodologies.
• Costing of DHIs lacks standardized components, hindering accurate economic assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a literature-informed checklist of program cost components for DHIs.
• To apply this checklist to estimate costs for a specific DHI (Mamma Mia).

Main Methods:

• A scoping review identified guidance on DHI program costs (2010-2022).
• Extracted cost elements were categorized into development, research, maintenance, implementation, and health personnel involvement (HPI).
• The checklist was applied to the Mamma Mia DHI (Self-Guided and Blended versions).

Main Results:

• The checklist identified five main cost categories: development, research, maintenance, implementation, and HPI.
• Program costs per user are context-specific, decreasing with DHI maturity and varying with user numbers.
• The Blended Mamma Mia intervention was more than double the cost of the Self-Guided version (€140.5 vs €56.6 per user, excluding research).

Conclusions:

• The developed checklist enhances transparency in DHI cost calculations.
• It facilitates improved future comparisons of economic evaluations across different DHIs.