Calculating the economic impact of health education programs: Five tools for extension educators

Evaluation of Extension health/wellness programming often focuses on positive changes in participants' health practices and changed health status. Increasingly, stakeholders and funders are also requesting analyses of the economic impact of health education programs. In an era of heightened accountability, there is also pressure to compare program costs and benefits. Unlike financial management programs that have built-in economic indicators, health education program impacts must often be calculated indirectly. This article describes five methods to quantify the economic impact of health education programs: participant surveys, time value of money analyses, extrapolation from published cost estimates, cost-benefit analyses, and return on investment.