In economic evaluations, data sources are expected to provide which components?

• A. Costs only.
• B. Costs, Effectiveness, and Utilities.
• C. Utilities only.
• D. Effectiveness only.

Answer: (B)

In economic evaluations, you want a complete picture of value: what resources are used, what health benefits occur, and how those benefits are valued in quality of life terms. Data sources should provide costs, effectiveness, and utilities because together they let you compare interventions on a common footing.

Costs capture the resources consumed, such as medications, hospital days, and procedures, tied to a price. Effectiveness measures the health outcomes produced, like lives saved, complications prevented, or symptom relief. Utilities assign a value to different health states, reflecting preferences for quality of life, which is essential for calculating quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). With costs, effects, and utilities, you can compute metrics like incremental cost-effectiveness ratios in a way that enables meaningful comparisons across diverse health interventions.

Choosing only costs misses the health impact; choosing only effectiveness misses the economic side; choosing only utilities misses both the actual outcomes and the costs. All three components together provide the full basis for evaluating value in health care.