Cost-Effectiveness of Community-Based Interventions for Hypertension Prevention and Management: A Protocol for Systematic Review, Meta-Analysis, and Quality Assessment

TL;DR

This study will review evidence on the cost-effectiveness of community-based interventions for managing and preventing hypertension, aiming to guide policy decisions.

Contribution

The study introduces a systematic review protocol to assess the cost-effectiveness of community-based hypertension interventions globally.

Findings

The review will evaluate economic evidence from diverse geographical and implementation settings.

It will identify methodological gaps in cost-effectiveness studies of community-based hypertension interventions.

Abstract

Hypertension presents a global health challenge, contributing significantly to household and health system costs. While clinical effectiveness of hypertension interventions is well documented, evidence on the cost-effectiveness of community-based interventions remains limited. This review aims to evaluate the economic evidence of community-based interventions for hypertension prevention and management and compare cost-effectiveness estimates across diverse geographical and implementation settings.

A systematic search will be conducted across databases such as Scopus, Web of Science, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature Plus, American Psychological Association PsyclNFO, National Health Service Economic Evaluation Database, and Cochrane Central, covering literature up to January 2025. Grey literature and preprints will also be included. Eligible Judies will be full economic evaluations comparing two or more community-based interventions, in any language. Two reviewers will independently screen Judies using RAYYAN software. Quality assessment will be performed using validated checkMs. A meta-analysis will be undertaken contingent upon the presence of adequate homogeneity in outcomes and methodologies.

This review will highlight cost-effectiveness estimates and identify methodological and subject-specific gaps in the literature which can provide comprehensive insights to inform policy decision on CBIs for HTN. While focusing on adult populations may introduce publication bias, this will be considered during interpretation.

This review is registered under PROSPERO, Indentifier: CRD420246129.