OBJECTIVES: In recent years the literature regarding the cost-effectiveness of disease prevention and health promotion has grown exponentially. Aim  of this study is an analysis of published economic evaluations on prevention: (i) how many economic evaluations are published (ii) what type of economic evaluations are published (cost-effectiveness analyses, cost-utility analyses or cost benefit analysis) (iii) which diseases or health problems (WHO-ICD-10 chapters) do economic evaluations of preventive interventions focus on (iv) how do those diseases or health problems relate to the burden of disease in the Netherlands? and (v) how cost-effective is prevention? METHODS: Economic evaluations on preventive measures  were identified by searching PubMed and Scopus. RESULTS: In the calendar year 2008, 232 economic evaluations of preventive interventions are published. In 114 studies the QALY is used as outcome measure, in 46 LYS is used and 15 studies present both QALY and LYS. In 38 studies the outcome measure is ‘cases prevented’. Most economic evaluations focus on the prevention of infectious diseases (73), cancers (49), cardiovascular diseases (23) and psychological- and behaviour disorders (16). Cardiovascular diseases are responsible for the highest burden of disease (12.5%), followed by psychological- and behaviour disorders (11.5%). Of the cost-utility evaluations 84% show an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) below €50,000 per QALY, of the cost-effectiveness evaluations almost 80% show an ICER below €50,000 per LYS. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows the disease clusters for which most preventive economic evaluations are published, and whether this corresponds with the diseases which cause much burden of disease and how cost-effective preventive interventions are. The conclusion of our study is that the published economic evaluations correspond rather well with the burden of disease in The Netherlands, with exception of infectious diseases and cancers. Finally, it appears that almost all published economic evaluations of preventive measures show favourable cost-effectiveness levels.