Journal of Child and Adolescent Behavior
Open Access

Research Article

Cost-effectiveness of Legacy for Children™ for Reducing Behavioral Problems and Risk for ADHD among Children Living in Poverty

Phaedra S Corso^*, Susanna N Visser, Justin B Ingels and Ruth Perou

Department of Health Policy and Management, University of Georgia, Wright Hall Office 315, 100 Foster Road, Athens, GA 30602, USA

*Corresponding Author:

Phaedra S Corso
Department of Health Policy and Management
University of Georgia, Wright Hall Office 315
100 Foster Road, Athens, GA 30602, USA
Tel: 706-713-2708
E-mail: pcorso@uga.edu

Received Date: August 05, 2015 Accepted Date: August 28, 2015 Published Date: September 04, 2015

Citation: Corso PS, Visser SN, Ingels JB, Perou R (2015) Cost-effectiveness of Legacy for Children™ for Reducing Behavioral Problems and Risk for ADHD among Children Living in Poverty. J Child Adolesc Behav 3:240. doi:10.4172/2375-4494.1000240

Copyright: © 2015 Corso PS, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

This paper describes the programmatic costs required for implementation of the Legacy for ChildrenTM (Legacy) program at two sites (Miami and Los Angeles) and enumerate the cost-effectiveness of the program. Legacy provided group-based parenting intervention for mothers and children living in poverty. This cost-effectiveness analysis included two behavioral outcomes, behavioral problems, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and programmatic costs collected prospectively (2008 US$). Incremental costs, effects, the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER), and cost-effectiveness acceptability curves were estimated for the intervention groups relative to a comparison group with a 5 year analytic horizon. The intervention costs per family for Miami and Los Angeles were $16,900 and $14,100, respectively. For behavioral problems, the incremental effects were marginally significant (p=0.11) for Miami with an ICER of $178,000 per child at high risk for severe behavioral problems avoided. For ADHD, the incremental effects were significant (p=0.03) for Los Angeles with an ICER of $91,100 per child at high risk for ADHD avoided. Legacy was related to improvements in behavioral outcomes within two community-drawn sites and the costs and effects are reasonable considering the associated economic costs

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