A cost-outcome approach to pre and post-implementation of national sports injury prevention programmes

In New Zealand (NZ), the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) has developed a pre and post-implementation cost-outcome formulae for sport injury prevention to provide information regarding the success of a prevention programme. The ACC provides for the cost of all personal injuries in NZ and invests in prevention programmes to offset 1.6 million annual claims that cost $NZD 1.9 billion. The ACC invests in nine national community sport injury prevention programmes that represent 40% of sport claims and costs. Pre-implementation is used to determine the decision whether to invest in implementation and to determine the level of such investment for the injury prevention programme. Post-implementation is calculated two ways: unadjusted, assuming ceteris paribus; and adjusted assuming no prevention programme was in place. Post-implementation formulae provide a return on investment (ROI) for each dollar invested in the programme and cost-savings. The cost-outcome formulae approach allows ACC to manage expectations of the prevention programme as well as when it will. provide a ROI, allowing it to take a tong-term view for investment in sport injury prevention. Originally developed for its sport injury prevention programmes, the cost-outcome formulae have now been applied to the other prevention programmes ACC invests in such as home, road and workplace injury prevention. (C) 2007 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.