Cost-Effectiveness and Equity Trade-Off for Breastfeeding Interventions

Abstract

Many factors influence mothers’ decisions to begin and continue breastfeeding (BF). These include individual, societal and policy factors. In this chapter, we address these factors including the social differences in BF practice among Irish women and discuss important policy implications (efficiency and equity). It is well-documented that BF practice is different for mothers with different social backgrounds. Traditionally, evaluations of BF support interventions have focused on either the effectiveness or the equity issues, but rarely analysed both in a joint framework. The aim of this chapter is to discuss the cost-effectiveness and equity trade-off for BF interventions. We identify different BF support interventions and focus on social differences and their influence for maintaining BF practices. We illustrate how the “Distributional cost-effectiveness (DCEA) framework” can be applied to these interventions and how some interventions may be more effective in changing behaviour and outcomes for mothers with different social-economic status (SES), which may change the inequality in effectiveness and reduce the health equity.