SynthesisJournal of epidemiology and community health2017
Return on investment of public health interventions: a systematic review.
Synthesis in Journal of epidemiology and community health, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT07461415 (CONNECT-HTN Trial - Coaching and Navigation by CHWs Through Telehealth for High-risk Hypertension), which is not on this map. Cited by 183 papers, 12 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
CONNECT-HTN Trial - Coaching and Navigation by CHWs Through Telehealth for High-risk Hypertension
Who cites it
183 citing papers in PubMed, 12 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The impact of cerebral oxygen saturation monitoring on perioperative neurocognitive disorders: a meta-analysis and economic analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Pooled it
- A Systematic Review of Economic Evaluations on Interventions Targeting Insomnia or Hypersomnia.Applied health economics and health policy · 2026Pooled it
- Effectiveness and economic impact of interventions targeting healthcare personnel: a systematic review of return on investment.Public health reviews · 2026Pooled it
- What influences the implementation of health checks in the prevention and early detection of chronic diseases among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australian primary health care? Findings from an evidence mapping review.Health research policy and systems · 2025Pooled it
- Social Vulnerability and Child Food Insecurity in Developed Countries: A Systematic Review.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2025Pooled it
- Return on investment of fracture liaison services: a systematic review and analysis.Osteoporosis international : a journal established as result of cooperation between the European Foundation for Osteoporosis and the National Osteoporosis Foundation of the USA · 2024Pooled it
- Interventions in the workplace to reduce risk factors for noncommunicable diseases: an umbrella review of systematic reviews of effectiveness.Journal of occupational health · 2024Pooled it
- Community Guide Methods for Systematic Reviews of Economic Evidence.American journal of preventive medicine · 2023Pooled it
- The development of the concept of return-on-investment from large-scale quality improvement programmes in healthcare: an integrative systematic literature review.BMC health services research · 2022Pooled it
- Identifying and understanding benefits associated with return-on-investment from large-scale healthcare Quality Improvement programmes: an integrative systematic literature review.BMC health services research · 2022Pooled it
- Does health economics research align with the disease burden in the Middle East and North Africa region? A systematic review of economic evaluation studies on public health interventions.Global health research and policy · 2022Pooled it
- Examining the effectiveness of place-based interventions to improve public health and reduce health inequalities: an umbrella review.BMC public health · 2021Pooled it
- Testing a Population-Based Outreach Intervention for Ovarian Cancer Survivors to Encourage their Close Relatives to Consider Genetic Counseling.Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology · 2024Trial
- Adjunctive Medication Management and Contingency Management to enhance adherence to acamprosate for alcohol dependence: the ADAM trial RCT.Health technology assessment (Winchester, England) · 2023Trial
- Impact of a multifaceted intervention to improve antibiotic prescribing: a pragmatic cluster-randomised controlled trial.Antimicrobial resistance and infection control · 2020Trial
- Communities in charge of alcohol (CICA): a protocol for a stepped-wedge randomised control trial of an alcohol health champions programme.BMC public health · 2018Trial
- Sustaining Health Promotion in Australian Supermarkets: Qualitative Perspectives From the Reach for the Stars Programme.Health promotion journal of Australia : official journal of Australian Association of Health Promotion Professionals · 2026Article
- Digital Health Inequalities Among Immigrants in the United States: An Intersectional Analysis Using Nationally Representative Survey Data.Journal of immigrant and minority health · 2026Article
- Underfunded and undervalued: community-based health promotion practitioners' experiences of Western Australia's prevention sector.Health promotion international · 2026Article
- Socioeconomic Disparities in Comorbidity of Dental Caries and Metabolic Syndrome in Norwegian Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study Using HUNT4 Survey Data.Caries research · 2026Article
123 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPublic sector austerity measures in many high-income countries mean that public health budgets are reducing year on year. To help inform the potential impact of these proposed disinvestments in public health, we set out to determine the return on investment (ROI) from a range of existing public health interventions.
methodsWe conducted systematic searches on all relevant databases (including MEDLINE; EMBASE; CINAHL; AMED; PubMed, Cochrane and Scopus) to identify studies that calculated a ROI or cost-benefit ratio (CBR) for public health interventions in high-income countries.
resultsWe identified 2957 titles, and included 52 studies. The median ROI for public health interventions was 14.3 to 1, and median CBR was 8.3. The median ROI for all 29 local public health interventions was 4.1 to 1, and median CBR was 10.3. Even larger benefits were reported in 28 studies analysing nationwide public health interventions; the median ROI was 27.2, and median CBR was 17.5.
conclusionsThis systematic review suggests that local and national public health interventions are highly cost-saving. Cuts to public health budgets in high income countries therefore represent a false economy, and are likely to generate billions of pounds of additional costs to health services and the wider economy.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.