On-line access to a cost-benefit/cost-effectiveness analysis bibliography via CDC WONDER.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is undertaking an assessment of prevention effectiveness; using information from cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis (CBA/CEA) studies will be integral to this effort. To facilitate this work, a bibliography of articles that discusses both the costs and consequences of personal health services has been created. For 1979 to 1990, 3,206 articles were identified and classified into more than 250 topics. To provide simplified, readily available access to this resource in a system in which searches would not be key-word dependent, the authors created an on-line version of the bibliography and incorporated it into CDC WONDER, the CDC's on-line public health information system. Users can limit their queries by traditional bibliographic criteria (author, journal, publication type, year of publication, and country of origin); the full text of the abstract; or criteria particular to the CBA/CEA bibliography (topic, study type, and medical function). Having the CBA/CEA bibliography in CDC WONDER allows it to be searched and updated easily and also permits researchers to create personalized subsets of references. This on-line bibliography should help researchers in their efforts to identify gaps in knowledge of the relationship between costs and outcomes and the role of prevention in controlling health care expenditures.