We gathered information on the cost-effectiveness of life-saving interventions in the United States from publicly available economic analyses. "Life-saving interventions" were defined as any behavioral and/or technological strategy that reduces the probability of premature death among a specified target population. We defined cost-effectiveness as the net resource costs of an intervention per year of life saved. To improve the comparability of cost-effectiveness ratios arrived at with diverse methods, we established fixed definitional goals and revised published estimates, when necessary and feasible, to meet these goals. The 587 interventions identified ranged from those that save more resources than they cost, to those costing more than 10 billion dollars per year of life saved. Overall, the median intervention costs $42,000 per life-year saved. The median medical intervention cost $19,000/life-year; injury reduction $48,000/life-year; and toxin control $2,800,000/life-year. Cost/life-year ratios and bibliographic references for more than 500 life-saving interventions are provided.

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Quantitative methods were used to review epidemiologic data relating consumption of alcoholic beverages to risk of colorectal cancer. The data (27 studies) supported the presence of a weak association. For consumption of two alcoholic beverages daily, on average the relative risk of colorectal cancer was 1.10 (95% confidence interval 1.05-1.14). Other findings were: (1) the association did not vary according to gender or site within the large bowel; (2) results from follow-up studies (relative risk 1.32, 95% confidence interval 1.16-1.51) suggested a stronger relationship than those from case-control studies (relative risk 1.07, 95% confidence interval 1.02-1.12); and (3) the evidence supporting beverage specificity was not conclusive, although the results were consistent with a stronger association with consumption of beer (relative risk 1.26, 95% confidence interval 1.13-1.41) than with consumption of wine (relative risk 1.11, 95% confidence interval 0.91-1.36) or liquor (relative risk 1.13, 95% confidence interval 0.99-1.29). Because the magnitude of the association between alcohol consumption and risk of colorectal cancer was small, the findings regarding a causal role of alcohol were inconclusive.

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