Qualitative Analysis of Administrator, Provider, and Stakeholder Views on the Costs and Benefits of a Treatment for Problematic Sexual Behavior of Youth

Qualitative economic evaluation of psychosocial interventions: How looking beyond the numbers helps illuminate programmatic costs and benefits.

“…Next, we used these data to provide readers with real-world examples of costs and benefits, often in the form of stories, anecdotes, and other compelling quotations that made the quantitative data come alive in a way not possible without being contextualized qualitatively (see Table 2, for illustrative examples). In some cases, we presented our qualitative results in numerical form (e.g., the percentage of interviewees who voiced a particular theme, or the number of instances a theme was mentioned across all interviews; see Tables 1–4 in Mundey et al, 2020). However, even in such instances, our research centered around uncovering culturally embedded meanings and experiences of events and phenomena, adding value beyond simply facilitating interpretation of the quantitative cost-effectiveness results.…”

“…These included, for example, removing the stigma associated with PSB, as well as the emotional toll of criminalizing youth with PSB. Other impacts included supporting and keeping families intact, helping families feel less alone, enhancing public safety (e.g., less victims), educating the public about PSB, teaching families and youth skills and strategies for treating and preventing PSB, and reducing provider/administrator stress (Mundey et al, 2020). All of these impacts have potential economic ramifications.…”

“…We summarize our study design in the brief synopsis that follows, highlighting how important qualitative data were to calculating and interpreting the costeffectiveness of PSB-CBT. Because the results of our mixed-method economic evaluation are detailed elsewhere (Dopp et al, 2019(Dopp et al, , 2020Mundey et al, 2020Mundey et al, , 2021-along with further methodological and demographic detail about study sites, participants, and procedures-here we focus on basic study design and major takeaways from our use of qualitative data to inform utilization of these approaches in other economic evaluations of psychosocial interventions. Rather than presenting the empirical findings emanating out of our data, this article is methodological in scope, aiming to unpack the "how" and the "why" behind our decision to prioritize qualitative methods in cost evaluation of PSB-CBT.…”

“…At first glance, Question Category 5 regarding sustaining the program may not appear to be directly related to program costs and benefits. We did not originally design our questions about sustainability to directly measure economic impact, yet several interviewees discussed whether or not the program should be sustained in terms of program costs and benefits (Mundey et al, 2020)—which illustrates the need for researchers to look for costs and benefits across the totality of interviews, even in contexts not directly asking about these topics. Our rationale for asking about costs and benefits using Question Categories 1–4 was to probe about the same overarching topic (i.e., economic impact) in multiple interrelated, yet distinct, ways.…”

“…For example, interviewees discussed costs outside of direct treatment, including outreach and education, as well as case management. Other notable costs included supplies, transportation for families and therapists, data tracking, and case management (Mundey et al, 2020).…”