Evaluation of a social support program for children with chronic medical conditions and their mothers: A cost -effectiveness and cost -benefit analysis

This study evaluates the cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit of the Family to Family Network Program, sponsored by the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health and the School of Medicine and supported by a grant from the Bureau of Maternal and Child Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The project involves the collection of data on program costs, as well as the integration of this new information with existing data on client demographics, medical status, program procedures, psychosocial processes, health services utilization, and mental health and school and work attendance outcomes. A summative cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analysis describes the cost of the program per unit of effectiveness and benefit and a formative cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analysis evaluates the strength of the relationships between program costs, treatment procedures, the psychosocial processes that are influenced by the treatment procedures, and the outcomes or benefits generated by changes in those psychosocial processes (Yates, 1997). Most cost assessments currently in the literature can be considered summative cost-effectiveness analyses. Incorporating the summative cost data into formative cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analyses provides health care providers and policy makers with the information needed to determine how to minimize costs necessary to achieve particular outcomes and how to maximize particular outcomes given resource constraints (Yates, 1995).