The Committee to Evaluate Measures of Health Benefits for Environmental, Health, and Safety Regulation assessed the scientific validity, ethical implications, and practical utility of a wide range of effectiveness measures used or proposed in cost-effectiveness analysis. This assessment is intended to provide guidance and support to federal agencies as they estimate the benefits, costs, and relative efficiency of regulatory interventions that affect human health and well-being.

The study was commissioned by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the federal Office of Management and Budget and is being supported by a consortium of federal agencies that are responsible for assessing and reducing environmental, occupational, and consumer risks to health and safety.

The focus of this evaluation was on effectiveness measures that combine information on mortality and morbidity impacts (e.g., quality-adjusted life years, disability-adjusted life years, healthy-year equivalents), and allow for comparisons across diverse public health, safety, and medical interventions. The committee developed criteria for choosing among the measures that potentially are useful for regulatory impact analysis.

Because cost-effectiveness analysis and estimation techniques inherently entail high degrees of uncertainty, the sources and implications of these uncertainties were addressed in the study. The committee made recommendations regarding measures appropriate for assessing the health benefits of regulatory interventions and propose criteria for identifying regulations for which cost-effectiveness analysis is appropriate and informative. The committee also recommended research that could improve the use of health benefits measures in evaluating regulatory actions.

The Committee is making available a commissioned background paper, "Current Federal Agency Practices for Valuing the Impacts of Regulations on Human Health and Safety." (See link below.) This document, authored by committee consultant Lisa Robinson, describes individual federal agency policies and practices for the economic evaluation of regulations with health-related benefits. It does not reflect the views of the Committee. Comments on or corrections to the information contained in the background paper should be directed to the author, Lisa Robinson, at robinson-hansel@comcast.net or Wilhelmine Miller, IOM study director, at wmiller@nas.edu.