101 SOME STRATEGIES TO REDUCE RISK FROM HEALTH RISKS TO POLICY arlier chapters have quantified the burden of disease attributable to major risk factors, and shown the size of the potentially avoidable burden if the population distribution of risk is reduced across the board. This knowledge is important but it is only the first step required to decide how best to improve population health with the available resources.The second step involves assessing what types of intervention are available to decrease expo- sure to risks or to minimize the impact of exposure on health; to what extent they are likely to improve population health singly and in combination; and what resources are required to implement them. Chapter 4 quantified the importance of selected risk factors in different settings. This chapter evaluates selected interventions to reduce the impact on population health of some of those risk factors 1 Different types of evidence on intervention costs and effectiveness have been consid ered in the analysis detailed in this chapter. Some interventions have been widely imple mented in many settings, and relatively good information on their costs and effects exists. The interventions for which it is easier to obtain this type of evidence are often those that focus on individuals rather than on populations as a whole, and the overall impact on population health of such interventions can be relatively small. Some types of population based interventions with the potential to make very substantial improvements in popula tion health have not been implemented very frequently or have not been evaluated very often. The evidence on the costs and effectiveness of these interventions is less certain, but it is important to consider them because they have the potential to make very substantial differences in health outcomes Cost-effectiveness analysis can be undertaken in many ways and there have been sev- eral attempts to standardize methods to make results comparable(1-3). WHO has devel oped a standardized set of methods and tools that can be used to analyze the costs and population health impact of current and possible new interventions at the same time(3) As part of WHO,'s CHOiCe project, these tools and methods have been used to analyze a range of interventions that tackle some of the leading risks identified in Chapter 4.2 The ChoiCe project is intended to provide regularly updated databases on the costs and effects of a full range of promotive, preventive, curative and rehabilitative health This chapter represents a report on the first stage of a long-term work plan to evaluate the burden of all the major risks to health and the costs and effectiveness of all major interventions CHOICE stands for CHoosing Interventions that are Cost-Effective- see wwwwho int/evidenceSome Strategies to Reduce Risk 101 5 SOME STRATEGIES TO REDUCE RISK FROM HEALTH RISKS TO POLICY arlier chapters have quantified the burden of disease attributable to major risk factors, and shown the size of the potentially avoidable burden if the population distribution of risk is reduced across the board. This knowledge is important but it is only the first step required to decide how best to improve population health with the available resources. The second step involves assessing what types of intervention are available to decrease expo￾sure to risks or to minimize the impact of exposure on health; to what extent they are likely to improve population health singly and in combination; and what resources are required to implement them. Chapter 4 quantified the importance of selected risk factors in different settings. This chapter evaluates selected interventions to reduce the impact on population health of some of those risk factors.1 Different types of evidence on intervention costs and effectiveness have been consid￾ered in the analysis detailed in this chapter. Some interventions have been widely imple￾mented in many settings, and relatively good information on their costs and effects exists. The interventions for which it is easier to obtain this type of evidence are often those that focus on individuals rather than on populations as a whole, and the overall impact on population health of such interventions can be relatively small. Some types of population￾based interventions with the potential to make very substantial improvements in popula￾tion health have not been implemented very frequently or have not been evaluated very often. The evidence on the costs and effectiveness of these interventions is less certain, but it is important to consider them because they have the potential to make very substantial differences in health outcomes. Cost-effectiveness analysis can be undertaken in many ways and there have been sev￾eral attempts to standardize methods to make results comparable (1–3). WHO has devel￾oped a standardized set of methods and tools that can be used to analyze the costs and population health impact of current and possible new interventions at the same time (3). As part of WHO’s CHOICE project, these tools and methods have been used to analyze a range of interventions that tackle some of the leading risks identified in Chapter 4.2 The CHOICE project is intended to provide regularly updated databases on the costs and effects of a full range of promotive, preventive, curative and rehabilitative health interventions. 1 This chapter represents a report on the first stage of a long-term work plan to evaluate the burden of all the major risks to health and the costs and effectiveness of all major interventions. 2 CHOICE stands for CHoosing Interventions that are Cost-Effective – see www.who.int/evidence