Net health benefit

Net health benefit (NHB) is a summary statistic that represents the impact of introducing a new intervention on population health. Net health benefit assumes that ‘lost health’ can be estimated as an ‘opportunity cost’ to represent the health that is foregone elsewhere as a result of moving funding to pay for a new intervention. NHB is usually measured using quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) and is calculated by [incremental gain in QALYs – (incremental cost / opportunity cost threshold)].  A positive NHB indicates that the health gains from the new intervention are greater than the health lost due to its funding, resulting in a net increase in overall population health. Conversely, a negative NHB means the health gains are not sufficient to offset the opportunity cost, leading to a net decrease in population health.