Best practice in estimating the costs of alcohol: recommendations for future studies.

Abstract

This report aims to summarize best practice in estimating the attributable and avoidable costs of alcohol, and to make recommendations for making such estimates in future studies. It discusses the conceptual basis for such cost studies, and then goes through the conceptual and methodological challenges for each type of cost in turn. 
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\nIt recommends:
\n1.\tchanges in the terminology used; 
\n2.\tthe consistent and explicit consideration of external costs; 
\n3.\tmore sophisticated modelling of the effect of policy on costs; 
\n4.\tmore robust attempts to quantify alcohol’s causal effect on harm and costs; 
\n5.\ta demonstration project using new methodologies; 
\n6.\tthe use of scenarios rather than existing sensitivity analyses; 
\n7.\tthe importing of data from other studies rather than simply omitting certain types of cost; 
\n8.\tconsideration of future health and resource costs; and 
\n9.\tnot using the human capital method for valuing the labour costs of premature mortality within the main estimates.