Economic aspects of health education.

Economic aspects of health education have, to date, received inadequate attention. An economic framework for discussing and evaluating health education is offered, with health education being placed in the already well established economic framework for assessing both health and education respectively. Health education is shown to yield both consumption and investment benefits. The application of cost-benefit analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis to health education activities is explored, and the reasons for the absence of successful applications of the cost-benefit technique to health education programmes are described. The somewhat greater scope for the application of cost-effectiveness analysis is then discussed. A detailed economic evaluation is provided of the North Karelia Project which was concerned with the prevention of cardiovascular disease. The inadequacy of the limited economic evaluation of that project is described and an attempt made to assess the true economic consequences of the project.