Comparing smoking cessation to screening and brief intervention for alcohol in distributional cost effectiveness analysis to explore the sensitivity of results to socioeconomic inequalities characterised in model inputs.

A distribution of intervention impact across socioeconomic groups can be estimated from socioeconomic differences across a staircase from need (e.g. prevalence) up to intervention characteristics (e.g. effectiveness) using distributional cost effectiveness analysis (DCEA). The extent to which evidence on inequality at different steps of the staircase contributes to uncertainty in population level impact is not well understood. We used DCEAs in smoking cessation and alcohol interventions to explore how socioeconomic inequality in model inputs impacts upon final conclusions about health inequality and value for money.