Economic Evaluation of School Health Programmes: A Mapping Review (2005-2015)

The economic evaluation has gained popularity in recent years but, to be useful, it must be conducted and reported accurately. The aim of this study was to perform a mapping review identifying published articles about economic evaluation of school health programmes, characterizing and qualifying what has been published, and discussing how these studies were conducted. The review was carried out in PubMed for studies published in the past decade. The search strategy included "cost", "economic evaluation", "school health services", "school health", "school health promotion" and "school health program”. Thirty-five studies were assessed. The studies addressed ten different countries and cost-effectiveness was the most economic evaluation used. The narrative synthesis gathered the selected studies in nine groups, demonstrating a high heterogeneity of methods and results in the economic analyzes performed. There is evidence that school health programmes can bring benefits to the target population and society. The gathered information in this article can contribute to performing economic evaluation studies and improving programmes