Premature Mortality Costs Research Articles

Particulate matter and human health in the United Kingdom

Using epidemiological meta studies for the health impacts of small particulate matter — PM 10 — it is possible to predict the number of premature deaths and some morbidity impacts in the UK from prevailing ambient concentrations. The analysis suggests that as many as 12 000 deaths might be attributed to total concentrations, or perhaps 7000 deaths if only ‘anthropogenic’ PM 10 is included. The nature of these premature deaths is unclear. They are almost certainly among the older population so that foreshortened lives may be measured in days, months or years. Morbidity effects can similarly be estimated, the main ones of policy concern being chronic bronchitis and ‘restricted activity days’. Unit economic values are applied to these health impacts in order to ‘collapse’ different impacts into a common unit. The end result is a premature mortality cost of about £11.1 billion (urban plus rural exposure) and a further £6.3 billion for urban morbidity.

Cost-benefit analysis of a nationwide neonatal inoculation programme against hepatitis B in an area of intermediate endemicity.

The aim was to estimate the costs and benefits of a nationwide neonatal vaccination campaign against hepatitis B in Israel for the 1990-2034 period. Using morbidity, mortality, utilisation, and cost data from Israeli and international sources, a spreadsheet model was constructed to carry out the cost-benefit analysis. The entire State of Israel, an area of intermediate endemicity. The population of Israel from 1990-2034. A policy of immunising all Israeli neonates would, for a cost of $13.8 million, reduce the number of cases of hepatitis B during the 1990-2035 period in the cohort from 359,000 to 166,000 and save the nation around $21.5 million in health resources alone, $16.6 million in averted work absences, and a further $0.6 million in averted premature mortality costs. Even when the savings to the health services ($0.6 million) arising from the reduction in hepatocellular carcinoma are excluded, the direct benefit to cost ratio is 1.51/1, still in excess of unity. The decision to adopt a nationwide neonatal inoculation policy, starting in January 1992, appears to be not only medically but also economically justifiable.

The economic cost of illness: fiscal 1975.

In 1963, Rice estimated the costs of illness and then allocated these costs by disease. She and Cooper in 1972 updated the original estimates and developed a more sophisticated methodological approach. This paper updates further the costs of illness to 1975 and presents further methodological changes. Analysis of the direct and indirect costs of illness for 1975 reveals that the upward trend into total costs continued, reaching $264 billion. The indirect costs are loss of earnings due to morbidity or premature mortality estimated at various discount rates allocated into 18 categories by disease. The direct costs include such payments as those made for hospital care, physician services, and drugs which are allocated by disease and unallocated costs such as construction and research. The proportion of total costs due to premature mortality were found to drop slightly from 1972 to 1975, while the morbidity share increased slightly. Direct costs account for approximately the same share of total illness in 1975 as in 1972. The proportion of total costs accounted for by direct costs varies directly with the discount rate selected, with the direct costs accounting for 50 per cent of the total at the 10 per cent discount rates and 37 per cent at 2.5 per cent rate. The proportion due to morbidity costs also varies directly with the discount rate, although the changes are small. There is an inverse relationship between the share for premature mortality costs and discount rate.