Date and Time
January 8, 2003
1:30 PM - 3:00 PM

Availability
Open to the public
No RSVP required

Behavioral health interventions are often gauged with a dichotomous outcome, "success" or "failure." Hidden by this dichotomy is a series of behavior changes that can be followed with the Transtheoretical Model (TTM). There has been little consideration, however, about whether this information can and should be used in cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analyses. We briefly review the transtheoretical stages of change model (TTM) and its applications to behavioral health interventions. We then discuss methods for including stages of change in cost-effectiveness analysis. The key decision is whether the analyst wants to value the partial behavior change for people who will not successfully change their behavior without further intervention. In some instances, this may be desirable and thus we discuss whether WTP can be used with quality adjusted life years (QALYs) in cost-effectiveness analysis.