COST-EFFECTIVENESS ANALYSIS (CEA) OF A TOBACCO INITIATION INTERVENTION FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS IN TÜRKİYE

Abstract

Economic evaluation is essential for the efficient use of public resources and, especially, for the scale-up Economic evaluation is essential for the efficient use of public resources and, especially, for the scale-up decisions of the new programs. This study provides a full economic evaluation of a 27-month tobacco control project for college students in Ankara, Türkiye. Tobacco use is costly due to disease/disability, premature death, and associated economic burden. Tobacco use among young adults is of particular concern in Türkiye because of rising prevalence in recent years. The study calculates the sample and population level relative cost-effectiveness ratio (CER) using recall for the interventions implemented in the project. Study found that while the sample-level CER for recall was ₺680,91 and for prevented initiation was ₺2,138.05, the extrapolated CERs were ₺34,96 and ₺105.44, respectively. Reponse to a direct cross-check project effectiveness question in the questionnaire indicated that the project prevented the initiation of 571 never-smoked students. Given this, prevented initiation CER is ₺2,289.18, which is quite similar to survey aggregate CER of ₺2,138.05 for preveneted initiation. Study also found that booth administered during special day was the most cost-effective intervention item while short videos were the least cost-effective ones. The findings of the study will better guide resource allocation and will be instrumental in policy decisions for scaling up the project to all higher education institutions in Türkiye.