Applying cost benefit analysis to nutrition education programs : focus on the Virginia Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program : final report

Abstract

In attempts to make public programs more cost effective, it is critical to develop and apply new techniques to evaluate Extension programs. Indeed, one of the major challenges facing Extension evaluators is the need to provide concise, meaningful evaluation information to decision-makers. Nutrition education has been a base program of the Cooperative Extension System since its inception. While knowledge gain, and to a more limited extent the behavior changes of participants have been measured, good measures of the cost savings that accrue as a result of participation in these education programs are not available. Procedures that quantitatively compare a program's costs to its benefits are inherently popular and useful. Cost benefit and effectiveness analysis represent economic analysis procedures that can be useful in addressing this need.