Table 1.

Types of economic evaluation and their main characteristics.

Type of economic analysis	Costs	Advantages	Disadvantages
Cost minimization (CMA)	Monetary	This technique only measures costs	It does not describe results, and it has little applicability to health
Cost-effectiveness (CEA)	Monetary	It allows comparisons between health programs	Difficulty in comparison of results
Cost-benefit (CBA)	Monetary	This analysis allows comparisons between strategies because it works with the same monetary unit	Difficulty of valuing human life
Cost-utility (CUA)	Monetary	This analysis considers the level of well-being and preferences of the individual	The scales of measurement of quality are arbitrary