The health-related social costs of alcohol in Belgium

Verhaeghe, Nick; Lievens, Delfine; Annemans, Lieven; Laenen, Freya Vander; Putman, Koen

doi:10.1186/s12889-017-4974-4

Cited by 12 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Moreover, a certain amount of the potential economic output is not produced because of alcohol effects and this category of losses (referred to as ‘indirect costs’) encompasses premature mortality, inability to work, decreased productivity and incarceration [8,9,10,11]. Some studies also attempt to attribute economic value to pain, suffering and the decline in the quality of life due to alcohol (‘intangible costs’) [12,13]; however, this cost category does not represent either the real or potential loss of material resources.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Only in the last 15 years, several systematic reviews on the economic impact of alcohol consumption [4,8,10,14], heavy drinking and alcohol dependence [9,15] have been published. Studies from individual states include both estimates from high-income countries (e.g., Belgium [12,16], the United States [11,17], Germany [18,19,20], the United Kingdom [13,21], Estonia [22] and Portugal [23]) and middle-income states (e.g., Russia [24], Sri Lanka [25] and Thailand [26]). Despite this abundance of evidence, the comparability of findings from particular countries is extremely limited because of methodological heterogeneity (different definitions, data sources, cost categories and calculation methods), resulting in a broad range of estimates [8,9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Clearly, the cost of mortality constitutes only a single component of alcohol economic burden; however, several cost-of-illness studies show that its magnitude is considerable. The cost of mortality constituted the following shares of total alcohol-attributable costs (or production losses): 27.0% (or 35.2%) in Germany [19]; 30.2% (42.0%) in the US [11]; 43.8% (61.8%) in Belgium [12]; 45.0% (68.8%) in another study from Germany [18] and as much as 66.7% (69.6%) in Thailand [26]. These figures show that mortality is a major burden category in the cost of alcohol misuse.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Production Losses Associated with Alcohol-Attributable Mortality in the European Union

Łyszczarz

2019

IJERPH

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The economic aspects of alcohol misuse are attracting increasing attention from policy makers and researchers but the evidence on the economic burden of this substance is hardly comparable internationally. This study aims to overcome this problem by estimating production losses (indirect costs) associated with alcohol-attributable mortality in 28 European Union (EU) countries in the year 2016. This study applies the prevalence-based top–down approach, societal perspective and human capital method to sex- and age-specific data on alcohol-related mortality at working age. The alcohol-attributable mortality data was taken from estimates based on the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016. Uniform data on labor and economic measures from the Eurostat database was used. The total production losses associated with alcohol-related deaths in the EU in 2016 were €32.1 billion. The per capita costs (share of costs in gross domestic product (GDP)) were €62.88 (0.215%) for the whole EU and ranged from €17.29 (0.062%) in Malta to €192.93 (0.875%) in Lithuania. On average, 81% of the losses were associated with male deaths and mortality among those aged 50–54 years generated the highest burden. Because alcohol is a major avoidable factor for mortality, public health community actions aimed at limiting this substance misuse might not only decrease the health burden but also contribute to the economic welfare of European societies.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Production Losses Associated with Alcohol-Attributable Mortality in the European Union

Łyszczarz

2019

IJERPH

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“…Fifth, the sensitivity analysis exhibits large variation in the estimates, particularly for the minimum productivity adjustment and different discount rates used. The choice of discount rate itself is another problem; some researchers argue that discounting should not be used in premature mortality cost analyses [47]. Finally, as this analysis spans to several decades towards the future (up to 2080), the assumptions made about future economic conditions (GDP growth, labour market trends) are fairly uncertain.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Production losses associated with premature mortality in 28 European Union countries

Łyszczarz

2019

Journal of Global Health

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BackgroundThere has been a growing interest in the economic burden of mortality; however, a majority of evidence is concerned with particular diseases. Less is known on the overall cost of all-cause early deaths, principally in international context. Therefore, this study aims to estimate production losses of premature mortality across 28 European Union (EU-28) countries in 2015.MethodsThe human capital method was applied to estimate the production losses (indirect costs) of all-cause deaths occurring at working age. The sex- and age-specific data on the number of deaths were taken from Eurostat’s database and a set of labour market measures was used to determine time of work during whole lifespan in particular countries.ResultsThe total production losses of all-cause premature mortality in EU-28 in 2015 were €174.6 billion, adjusted for purchasing power parity. The per capita production losses associated with early deaths were €342.39 for the whole EU-28 population on average; Lithuania experienced the highest per capita burden (€643.68), while the average costs were lowest in Greece (€188.69). These figures translated to an economic burden of 1.179% of gross domestic product in EU-28 and this share ranged from 0.679% in Luxembourg to 3.176% in Latvia. Most of the losses were due to men’s deaths and the proportion of losses associated with male mortality ranged from 64.7% in the Netherlands to 81.2% in Poland.ConclusionsPremature mortality is a considerable economic burden for European societies; however, the production losses associated with early deaths vary notably in particular countries.

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“…It is recommended that future studies examining the economic impact of overweight or obesity also examine the intangible costs to catch the full economic burden [ 48 ]. It can be suggested to determine non-financial welfare costs using disability adjusted life years (DALYs) [ 49 , 50 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health-related costs in a sample of premenopausal non-diabetic overweight or obese females in Antwerp region: a cost-of-illness analysis

et al. 2018

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BackgroundPeople with overweight or obesity are at increased risk for disease later in life which cause important health costs.The aim of this study was to estimate the health status and the corresponding costs in a sample of females with overweight or obesity which were participating in a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) exploring the effect of lifestyle habits changes on ectopic adipose tissue.MethodsSixty-two non-diabetic premenopausal females without major comorbidities of overweight and obesity were recruited among patients visiting endocrinologists at the obesity clinic of the University Hospital of Antwerp and the University of Antwerp.A RCT-embedded cost-of-illness approach with societal perspective, based on self-reported questionnaires and cost diaries (3 months recall) was applied to estimate the prevalence of different comorbidities and the related direct and indirect costs in this sample of overweight or obese females. The European Quality-of-Life-5D questionnaire was used to define the health state and the corresponding utility index of the participants.ResultsThe average direct health costs and health utilities observed in this sample were comparable with the general Flemish female population. This may partially be explained by the strict inclusion criteria of the RCT (i.e. overweight or obesity without diabetes type 2 or cardiovascular diseases). However, 15% of the participants had five or more comorbidities resulting in higher average costs and lower average health utility as compared to the general population, only 3 participants were diagnozed with the metabolic syndrome. In this subsample productivity was low due to high average absenteeism, yielding important total costs for the society.ConclusionSecondary prevention to avoid health deterioration in overweight or obese females without major comorbidies is needed to contain health care costs.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02831621, approval of the ethics committee of the University Hospital of Antwerp (number: 14/17/205 -ref: 7543075363).

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The health-related social costs of alcohol in Belgium

Cited by 12 publications

References 23 publications

Production Losses Associated with Alcohol-Attributable Mortality in the European Union

Production Losses Associated with Alcohol-Attributable Mortality in the European Union

Production losses associated with premature mortality in 28 European Union countries

Health-related costs in a sample of premenopausal non-diabetic overweight or obese females in Antwerp region: a cost-of-illness analysis

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