Indirect cost of non-communicable diseases deaths in the World Health Organization African Region

Abstract

Background: In 2012, a total of 9,398,809 deaths from all causes occurred in the WHO African Region; out of which 2,788,381 (29.67%) were due to non-communicable diseases (NCD). The objective of this study was to estimate future gross domestic product (GDP) losses associated with NCD deaths in the African Region for use to advocate for increased investments into prevention and management of NCDs. Methods:Human capital approach is used to estimate non-health GDP losses associated with NCD deaths. Future non-health GDP losses were discounted at 3%. The analysis was done for three income groups of countries and six age groups. One-way sensitivity analysis at 5% and 10% discount rates was undertaken to assess the impact on expected non-health GDP loss estimates. Results: The 2,788,381 NCD deaths that occurred in the AfricanRegion in 2012 are estimated to have resulted in a total discounted GDP loss of Int$ 61,302,450,005. Out of that total loss, 20.36% was borne by those aged 0-4 years; 12.76% by 5-14 years; 16.64% by 15-29 years; 44.93% by 30-59 years; 2.99% by 60-69 years; and 2.33% by those aged 70 years and above. Thus, those aged between 15 and 59 years bore 61.57% of the GDP losses.Approximately 47.4%, 33.1% and 19.5% of the total loss was borne by high and upper middle-, lower middle-and low-income countries respectively.

The fiscal value of human lives lost from coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in China

“…This study employed the value of human life analytical framework developed by Weisbrod [9], Landefeld and Seskin [10], Hall and Jones [11], Chisholm et al [12] and WHO [13]; and applied in the past to estimate the productivity losses associated with Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo [14]; deaths associated with non-communicable diseases in Africa [15]; deaths due to neglected tropical diseases in Africa [16]; tuberculosis deaths in Africa [17]; maternal deaths in Africa in 2013 [18]; child mortality in Africa [19]; EVD deaths in West Africa [20]; and maternal deaths in Africa in 2010 [21].…”

“…In line with past studies [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21], China's non-health GDP per capita (i.e. the difference between GDP per person and current health expenditure per person) was used as a proxy indicator of the money value of each YLL.…”

“…where 1 (1 + r) t is the discount factor used to convert future non-health GDP losses into today's dollars; r is an interest rate that measures the opportunity cost of lost earnings, which was 3% in the current study [9]; t=n t=1 is the summation from year t = 1 to t = n ; t is the first year of life lost, and n is the final year of the total number of YLL per COVID-19 death within an age group; NGDPC Int$ is per capita non-health GDP in Int$ or purchasing power parity (PPP); COVID − 19D j is the number of COVID-19 deaths in jth age group, where j = 1 corresponds to the age group 25-49 years, j = 2 to the age group 50-64 years, and j = 3 to the age group 65 years and above in China [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. Future non-health GDP losses were discounted to their present values using 2020 as the base year.…”

The Monetary Value of Human Lives Lost to Suicide in the African Continent: Beating the African War Drums

“…Linnerooth [61] and Mooney [62] highlighted strong points and flaws of the HCA. The form of HCA employed to monetarily value years of life lost is akin to that used in estimating the productivity losses associated with diabetes mellitus [63], cholera [64], maternal deaths in 2010 [65] and 2013 [66], child mortality [67], Ebola virus disease [68,69], tuberculosis [70], non-communicable diseases [71] and neglected tropical diseases [72] in Africa.…”

“…The total financial value of YLL (TMVYLL) from suicide in Africa is equal to the sum of potential non-health GDP losses of the 54 countries [63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72]. The TMVYLL of deaths from suicide in a country is the sum of the potential non-health GDP lost due to suicide among people aged 10-14 years (MVYLL 10−14 ), 15 The MVYLL k related with suicide deaths (SDs) among persons of k th age group was obtained by multiplying total discounted YLL, per-capita non-health GDP in international dollars (or purchasing power parity) and the total number of SDs in the age group [63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72]. Each of the 54 country's discounted monetary value of human lives loss linked with SDs was estimated using Equations presented below:…”