'Dictionary of health economics', by Alan Earl-Slater. Pp iv+163. Price £19.95. Oxford: Radcliffe Medical Press, 1999. ISBN 1 85775 337 2.
The subdiscipline of health economics has expanded greatly in the past decade and this dictionary offers a simple guide to some of the concepts used by practitioners. Some of the concepts are completely defined but others are dealt with superficially. For example, the central economic concept of efficiency is defined loosely and no distinction is made between technical and allocative definitions of efficiency. QALYs (quality adjusted life years) are defined, but DALYs (disability adjusted life years), much advocated by the World Bank and World Health Organisation, are ignored.
Some items are not about economics but are useful to health economics and other health service researchers. Examples of such items are the Jarman deprivation index and DDD (defined daily dose).
Overall this dictionary is like the curate's egg: good in parts. However, it would benefit from covering a more comprehensive range of health economics issues rather than crowding out such content with issues marginal to the practice of health economics.
This dictionary would be useful to consult in a library, but it is definitely not a good buy for the individual reader.
Reviewer - Alan Maynard is professor of health economics at the University of York