What are the Implications of Different Discount Rates?
The choice of discount rate can significantly impact the outcomes of health economic evaluations. A higher discount rate reduces the present value of future health benefits, making long-term interventions appear less cost-effective. Conversely, a lower discount rate increases the present value of future benefits, favoring interventions with long-term outcomes. This underscores the need for sensitivity analyses in health economic evaluations to assess how variations in the discount rate affect results.
