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Social welfare is defined as a broad concept including various systems of social services such as healthcare, social care, employment, housing and societal regeneration. In one way or another, these social services have an impact on an individual’s well-being.Effective social welfare interventions are aiming at inducing long-term changes on both the individual as well as environmental levels in order to improve an individual’s well-being and quality of life (QoL). In the majority of economic evaluations of social welfare interventions, the impact of social welfare interventions is reported as the induction of fundamental consequences on health or healthcare.Despite its growing importance in the social welfare field, economic evidence for evaluating social welfare interventions is still scarce. Because of the important and challenging character of the required informed decisions in the social welfare field on the one hand, and the scarcity of resources in the social welfare field on the other hand, there is a crucial need for economic evidence in the social welfare field.Part one of this PhD thesis, the general introduction, provides the definition, background and important concepts associated with social welfare interventions as well as the distinction with preventive health interventions. Also, the principles and different types of economic evaluations of social welfare interventions are clarified in this part.The second part is in light of hurdles associated with economic evaluations of social welfare interventions. The first objective of this PhD thesis (chapter 2 & chapter 3) was to summarize and discuss four, previously identified, hurdles associated with economic evaluations of social welfare interventions by means of a literature review. Afterwards, the opinions and suggestions of practitioners in the social welfare field were requested and analyzed in a qualitative research through semi-structured interviews. The results of these two studies were classified in four categories, described as ‘hurdles’: (i) condition-specific outcomes, (ii) QoL externalities, (iii) the perspective of the costs calculation, and (iv) the description and standardization of interventions.Condition-specific outcomesAs a result of the nature of social welfare interventions, these interventions respond to a more extensive range of societal aspects beyond healthcare. Therefore, more condition-specific outcomes need to be taken into account in economic evaluations of social welfare interventions in order to calculate QoL values. Especially, there are needs for additional outcomes related to mental health (including health-related mental health as well as well-being related mental health). Accordingly, the implementation of more condition-specific instruments concerning social welfare interventions is recommended.QoL externalitiesMostly, in economic evaluations of social welfare interventions only the impact on a client’s QoL is incorporated in the calculation of quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), while the impact on the QoL of his environment (= QoL externalities) is mostly neglected. As a result of different assumptions between the interviewed professionals, the impact on the QoL of the client’s environment was reported as positive as well as negative. The contrasting type of social welfare interventions and the contrasting associated target population, being the involved professionals, may be the reasons for the different assumptions. However, all the professionals believed that QoL externalities need to be incorporated in economic evaluations of social welfare interventions.The perspective of the costs calculationA broad societal perspective needs to be adopted in order to calculate costs associated with social welfare interventions. Six societal categories should be considered to estimate the total impact of social welfare interventions on societal costs. These categories include traffic (road safety), education, social engagement (including sports and culture), employment, judicial procedures (including crime) and health consequences in the long-term. Moreover, it has been stated that an improved QoL affects all societal branches and thus also the associated costs.The description and standardization of interventionsA substantial variability can be expected between social welfare interventions due to the broad variety of people involved in these interventions. Moreover, there is an inevitable ‘human factor’ that contributes to the variability of interventions. However, in light of economic evaluations of these interventions and for the sake of consistent decision-making it is important to reduce the variability between the same interventions. A detailed description and a defined and standardized intervention are needed to minimize the variability between the same interventions. A standardized intervention also improves the methodological quality of the intervention. Nevertheless, conflicting results of the literature review and the qualitative research were reported in this category. In practice, the standardization of social welfare interventions appears to be of limited added value because the unmistakable variety in the target population makes standardization impossible. Therefore, the findings suggest a tailor-made approach at the level of the client, while a well-developed intervention framework is permitted at the management-level.In part three the economic evaluations of two social welfare interventions are represented (chapter 4 & chapter 5). The second objective of this PhD thesis was to assess the cost-effectiveness of two social welfare interventions conducted in Flanders commissioned by the Support Centre for Welfare, Public Health and Family, an initiative of the Flemish Government. During this PhD research, two economic evaluations on social welfare interventions were performed. The first being an eHealth intervention based on self-regulation principles for health promotion in terms of fruit and vegetable intake and physical activity. The second being a mental health promotion program for employees in social economy companies.The cost-effectiveness of these two social welfare interventions were predicted through epidemiologic decision-analytic health economic models of the Markov type.The eHealth intervention resulted in a daily increase of 113 grams of fruit and vegetables per individual which corresponds to a potential gain of 17.3 QALYs and 14.4 QALYs per 1000 men and women, respectively, while cost-savings of 157,000 € and 128,000 € are predicted over 20 years if a life-long intervention effect is assumed. This eHealth intervention also resulted in a weekly increase of 103 minutes of total physical activity. A weekly increase of 103 minutes of total physical activity can even lead to a potential gain of 118 QALYs and 146 QALYs per 1000 men and women, respectively, while cost-savings of 1,377,000 € and 1,244,000 € are predicted on the long-term, which is not realistic. The promising results found in the cost-utility analysis of the eHealth intervention must yet be cautiously interpreted as the effect of the eHealth intervention was assumed to sustain on long-term. Additionally, due to a high drop-out rate, the eHealth intervention was only effective, and thus cost-effective, in a limited group of the target population.The mental health promotion program was conducted in two types of social economy companies in Flanders. This intervention resulted in reduced suicidal thoughts (-8.33% in men, -8.11% in women) on the short-term. The base case cost-utility analysis of this intervention predicted cost-savings of 26,000 € and 82,000 € per 1000 women and men, respectively. The impact on the health QALYs were very small. Only 0.82 QALYs and 0.23 QALYs were gained per 1000 men and women, respectively. One major drawback of this cost-utility analysis is that there were no intervention costs incorporated in the calculation of total costs. Therefore, a prediction was made of the maximal intervention costs in order for the intervention to remain dominant or to be cost-effective, by means of scenario-analyses.In the fourth part, the general discussion, the final objective of this PhD is provided (chapter 6). This objective combines the knowledge obtained from the first and second objectives in order to give evidence-based advice concerning the decision-making process on the current topic to policy makers, stakeholders and researchers in the welfare and healthcare branch. We tried to emphasize the relevance for policy makers, stakeholders and researchers to gain more insight on the value of economic evaluations of social welfare interventions. Some recommendations were made through reporting and reflecting on the occurrence of associated implications from the developmental stage of the social welfare intervention to the economic evaluation stage of the social welfare intervention. The quality of the social welfare interventions will be improved by following these recommendations, which will also benefit social and health professionals involved in this kind of interventions.