ArticlePharmacoEconomics2024
Developing a Program Costs Checklist of Digital Health Interventions: A Scoping Review and Empirical Case Study.
Article in PharmacoEconomics, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Comparison of Cost-Effectiveness Between Digital Health Interventions and Pharmacotherapy for Depression: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Pooled it
- Evaluating the costs of developing a digital supervision tool for task-shared depression care: findings from a multi-site study in India.BJPsych open · 2026Article
- Multicenter Usability Evaluation and Co-Development of a Digital Decision-Support Tool for Labor Triage: Mixed Methods Study.JMIR human factors · 2026Article
- Long-term clinical and cost-effectiveness of a fully automated digital cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia: 2-year follow-up of a single-blind, superiority, randomised controlled trial.The Lancet regional health. Europe · 2026Article
- Identifying and Comparing Intervention Cost Components in Remote Patient Monitoring: A Scoping Review.PharmacoEconomics · 2026Review
- Challenges in the future of cancer screening.International journal of cancer · 2026Review
- Health economic evaluations of digital health technologies-a rapid review of applied methods.Frontiers in digital health · 2026Review
- Considerations for mHealth development: lessons learned from two diabetes education apps.mHealth · 2026Article
- Shesha, a WhatsApp Chatbot for Linking Household Contacts to Tuberculosis Treatment or Preventive Therapy in South Africa: Design and Development.JMIR formative research · 2025Article
- Active remote monitoring of long-term conditions with mobile devices: a systematic review of cost-effectiveness analyses.NPJ digital medicine · 2025Article
- Mapping methodologies for economic assessment of digital health technologies: a scoping review protocol.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Costs and Outcomes of a Therapist-Guided Internet-Delivered Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: Multicenter Observational Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Observational
- Economic Evaluation Methodologies of Remote Patient Monitoring for Chronic Conditions: Scoping Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Expanding two-way texting for post-operative follow-up: A cost analysis of the implementation and scale-up in routine voluntary medical male circumcision settings in South Africa.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
introductionThe rate of development and complexity of digital health interventions (DHIs) in recent years has to some extent outpaced the methodological development in economic evaluation and costing. Particularly, the choice of cost components included in intervention or program costs of DHIs have received scant attention. The aim of this study was to build a literature-informed checklist of program cost components of DHIs. The checklist was next tested by applying it to an empirical case, Mamma Mia, a DHI developed to prevent perinatal depression.
methodA scoping review with a structured literature search identified peer-reviewed literature from 2010 to 2022 that offers guidance on program costs of DHIs. Relevant guidance was summarized and extracted elements were organized into categories of main cost components and their associated activities following the standard three-step approach, that is, activities, resource use and unit costs.
resultsOf the 3448 records reviewed, 12 studies met the criteria for data extraction. The main cost categories identified were development, research, maintenance, implementation and health personnel involvement (HPI). Costs are largely considered to be context-specific, may decrease as the DHI matures and vary with number of users. The five categories and their associated activities constitute the checklist. This was applied to estimate program costs per user for Mamma Mia Self-Guided and Blended, the latter including additional guidance from public health nurses during standard maternal check-ups. Excluding research, the program cost per mother was more than double for Blended compared with Self-Guided (€140.5 versus €56.6, 2022 Euros) due to increased implementation and HPI costs. Including research increased the program costs to €190.8 and €106.9, respectively. One-way sensitivity analyses showed sensitivity to changes in number of users, lifespan of the app, salaries and license fee.
conclusionThe checklist can help increase transparency of cost calculation and improve future comparison across studies.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.