Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012:2012:935825.
doi: 10.1155/2012/935825. Epub 2012 Sep 11.

A method to assess the potential effects of air pollution mitigation on healthcare costs

Bjørn Sætterstrøm  1 , Marie Kruse, Henrik Brønnum-Hansen, Jakob Hjort Bønløkke, Esben Meulengracht Flachs, Jan Sørensen
Affiliations

A method to assess the potential effects of air pollution mitigation on healthcare costs

Bjørn Sætterstrøm et al. J Environ Public Health. 2012.

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to develop a method to assess the potential effects of air pollution mitigation on healthcare costs and to apply this method to assess the potential savings related to a reduction in fine particle matter in Denmark.

Methods: The effects of air pollution on health were used to identify "exposed" individuals (i.e., cases). Coronary heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lung cancer were considered to be associated with air pollution. We used propensity score matching, two-part estimation, and Lin's method to estimate healthcare costs. Subsequently, we multiplied the number of saved cases due to mitigation with the healthcare costs to arrive to an expression for healthcare cost savings.

Results: The potential cost saving in the healthcare system arising from a modelled reduction in air pollution was estimated at €0.1-2.6 million per 100,000 inhabitants for the four diseases.

Conclusion: We have illustrated an application of a method to assess the potential changes in healthcare costs due to a reduction in air pollution. The method relies on a large volume of administrative data and combines a number of established methods for epidemiological analysis.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Survival curves.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Bønløkke JH. CEEH Scientific Report No 7a, 2011.
    1. Kan H, Chen B. Particulate air pollution in urban areas of Shanghai, China: health-based economic assessment. Science of the Total Environment. 2004;322(1–3):71–79. - PubMed
    1. El-Fadel M, Massoud M. Particulate matter in urban areas: health-based economic assessment. Science of the Total Environment. 2000;257(2-3):133–146. - PubMed
    1. Zaim KK. Estimation of health and economic benefits of air pollution abatement for Turkey in 1990 and 1993. Energy Policy. 1997;25(13):1093–1097.
    1. Kunzli N, Kaiser R, Medina S, et al. Public-health impact of outdoor and traffic-related air pollution: a European assessment. The Lancet. 2000;356(9232):795–801. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms