What is the primary purpose of economic evaluation in healthcare?

• A. To compare costs and health outcomes of two or more interventions to guide resource allocation decisions.
• B. To measure patient satisfaction with care.
• C. To maximize hospital throughput regardless of outcomes.
• D. To determine the prevalence of a disease in a population.

Answer: (A)

Economic evaluation in healthcare aims to determine value for money by comparing the costs and health outcomes of two or more interventions to guide resource allocation decisions. This approach helps decide which options to fund or adopt when budgets are limited, by weighing both how much they cost and the health benefits they produce, often in units like life-years gained or quality-adjusted life-years. The goal is to maximize health impact within available resources.

Other ideas mentioned—measuring patient satisfaction, maximizing hospital throughput regardless of outcomes, and determining disease prevalence—address different aims: patient satisfaction focuses on the care experience; throughput optimization is about efficiency without considering health results; prevalence is an epidemiologic measure used for planning, not an economic evaluation of value for money.