Health Care

Cost-Benefit Analysis

A method of comparing the cost of a program with its expected benefits in dollars (or other currency). The benefit-to-cost ratio is a measure of total return expected per unit of money spent. This analysis generally excludes consideration of factors that are not measured ultimately in economic terms. In contrast a cost effectiveness in general compares cost with qualitative outcomes.

National Library of MedicineMedical Subject Headings2026

Structured Summary

Abstract

A method of comparing the cost of a program with its expected benefits in dollars (or other currency). The benefit-to-cost ratio is a measure of total return expected per unit of money spent. This analysis generally excludes consideration of factors that are not measured ultimately in economic terms. In contrast a cost effectiveness in general compares cost with qualitative outcomes.

MeSH Record

Classification

Broader headings

Related Concepts

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MeSH Record

Synonyms

24 entry terms
  • Cost Benefit Analysis
  • Analyses, Cost Benefit
  • Analysis, Cost Benefit
  • Analysis, Cost-Benefit
  • Cost Benefit Analyses
  • Cost-Benefit Analyses
  • Benefits and Costs
  • Cost Benefit
  • Cost and Benefit
  • Cost-Benefit Data
  • Cost-Utility Analysis
  • Costs and Benefits
  • Economic Evaluation
  • Marginal Analysis
  • Analysis, Cost-Utility
  • Analysis, Marginal
  • Benefit and Cost
  • Cost Benefit Data
  • Cost Utility Analysis
  • Cost-Utility Analyses
  • Data, Cost-Benefit
  • Economic Evaluations
  • Evaluation, Economic
  • Marginal Analyses

MeSH Record

Aspects Covered

10 allowable subheadings

Indexed with the subheadings classification, economics, ethics, history, legislation & jurisprudence, methods, organization & administration, standards, statistics & numerical data, trends.

MeSH Record

History Note

76

MeSH Record

Previous Indexing

  • Costs and Cost Analysis (1966-1975)

MeSH Hierarchy

Tree Number

AMA Style

References

  1. National Library of Medicine. Cost-Benefit Analysis. Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). 2026. Unique ID D003362. http://id.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/2026/D003362
  2. Cost-Benefit Analysis. In: Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost%E2%80%93benefit_analysis
  3. Cost-Benefit Analysis. In: Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q942582