Economic Evaluation of an HIV/AIDS Behaviour Change Communication Programme in Malawi: Abstract

" Further, to ascertain whether BCC programs are 'good buys' relative to other HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment activities requires an assessment of the resources used for those programs, that is, the application of economic evaluation methods.”

This presentation for the International SBCC Summit 2016, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, February 8-10, describes measuring the economic benefits of the OneLove HIV/AIDS mass media Behavior Change Communication Programme of Pakachere in Malawi.

From the abstract:
"Since the onset of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Behavior Change Communication programs using mass media have been standard components of many countries’ HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs. In spite of their ubiquity, such programs have rarely been subject to rigorous evaluation and even more rarely to economic evaluations. Admittedly, evaluations of BCC programs face many challenges, particularly that program exposure is frequently beyond the control of researchers, and mass media may cover entire countries leaving all but a non-random sample of the population unexposed to messages. Further, to ascertain whether BCC programs are 'good buys' relative to other HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment activities requires an assessment of the resources used for those programs, that is, the application of economic evaluation methods. This study examines the cost-effectiveness - as measured by the cost per Disability Adjusted Life Years Averted - of the OneLove HIV/AIDS mass media Behavior Change Communication Programme of Pakachere - a Malawian affiliate of the Soul City Institute for Health and Development Communication. The OneLove campaign ran from 2007 to 2011.

Key highlights:
Overall, we find that the BCC interventions of Pakachere were highly cost-effective relative to international standards for HIV prevention activities. The cost-effectiveness of Pakachere radio interventions (e.g., OneLove radio) was found to be [UK]£ 1.26 / DALY averted using a 5-year horizon of benefits. Other Pakachere media were slightly less cost effective, including television (Love Stories in the Time of HIV and AIDS, the OneLove talk show, or Untold Stories) at [UK]£ 2.67 / DALY averted, print media at [UK]£ 11.03 / DALY averted and a combined multimedia intervention at [UK]£ 15.05 / DALY averted."