Economic Aspects of Trauma Care
Abstract
There are different concepts of economic evaluation to show the role of trauma and injury in today’s health care. This chapter demonstrates that an economic evaluation is not limited to mortality or morbidity calculations.. Economic analyses evaluate medical costs in relation to health benefit. In all concepts costs are measured in monetary units and are divided in direct and indirect costs. The difficult part of the analysis is to define the benefit and its unit. A cost-utility analysis (CUA) for example measures the benefit in non-monetary terms and focuses on the quality of health. Utlity can be measured in quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) or a specific level of health status. Road traffic accidents are one of the leading causes of death or DALYs lost and are an important cost factor for most societies. To reduce injuries and their costs for the societies effective prevention strategies are mandatory.
Keywords
Economic Evaluation Road Traffic Accident Monetary Unit Unintentional Injury Traffic MortalityReferences
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