Effect of air pollution on health care expenditure: Evidence from respiratory diseases

Background: Adverse drug reactions (ADR) are the known dangers of any medicinal therapy. They are not only responsible for increasing the mortality and morbidity but also for multiplying the health care expenditure. It is important to monitor the adverse effects of the drugs in the patients on treatment for chronic non-infective respiratory diseases attending OPD of pulmonary medicine in a tertiary care teaching hospitalMethods: The study was single-centric, non-randomized and observational hospital-based study which was carried out for a period of 1 and a half years in JJ Hospital. The patients who were included in the study suffered from either of the 4 diseases-Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, bronchiectasis or interstitial lung diseases (ILD). Data were analyzed by using Microsoft excel sheet. Based on the outcome of modified Hartwig and Siegel severity assessment scale, ADRs were grouped into various severity categories.Results: One hundred and thirty-two number of ADRs were seen in 69 out of 352 patients (19.6 %) of the study population. The occurrence of ADR was found slightly higher in males i.e., 53.62% as compared to females i.e., 46.38%. The patients who were on treatment for ILD showed highest percentage of ADRs i.e., 57.89% which is followed by bronchiectasis (17.39%), COPD (16.17%) and lastly asthma (10.26%). The ADRs belonging to GIT system were highest in number i.e., 80. The most frequently occurring ADR in the study was palpitation which occurred in 14 cases i.e., 20.29%. Out of 132 ADRs observed, 96 i.e., 72.73% belonged to the mild category and 36 ADRs i.e., 27.27% belonged to the moderate category. Not a single severe ADR was found in the study.Conclusions: It was found that 19.6% of the patient population suffered from ADRs, which is a considerable number. It is essential that health care professionals should support ADR monitoring process for the safety of the medicinal product. Proper implementation of ADR monitoring will help to reduce the harmful effects by early detection of drug safety problems in patients, assessing the risk-benefit in an individual and the population, improving the selection, rational use of drugs through the provision of timely warning to healthcare professionals.

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Does Industrial Air Pollution Increase Health Care Expenditure? Evidence From China

Frontiers in Public Health ◽

10.3389/fpubh.2021.695664 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

Author(s):

Jin-Sheng Shen ◽

Qun Wang ◽

Han-Pu Shen

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Air Pollution ◽

Health Care Expenditure ◽

Random Effect ◽

Random Effect Model ◽

Medical Expenditure ◽

Added Value ◽

Western China ◽

Effect Model ◽

The Impact

This paper discusses the impact of air pollution on medical expenditure in eastern, central, and western China by applying the fixed-effect model, random-effect model, and panel threshold regression model. According to theoretical and empirical analyses, there are different relationships between the two indexes in different regions of China. For eastern and central regions, it is obvious that the more serious the air pollution is, the more medical expenses there are. However, there is a non-linear single threshold effect between air pollution and health care expenditure in the western region. When air pollution is lower than this value, there is a negative correlation between them. Conversely, the health care expenditure increases with the aggravation of air pollution, but the added value is not enough to make up for the health problems caused by air pollution. The empirical results are basically consistent with the theoretical analysis, which can provide enlightenment for the government to consider the role of air pollution in medical expenditure. Policymakers should arrange the medical budget reasonably, according to its situation, to make up for the loss caused by air pollution.

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How Does Industrial Waste Gas Emission Affect Health Care Expenditure in Different Regions of China: An Application of Bayesian Quantile Regression

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph16152748 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 16 (15) ◽

pp. 2748 ◽

Cited By ~ 25

Author(s):

Xiaocang Xu ◽

Zhiming Xu ◽

Linhong Chen ◽

Chang Li

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Air Pollution ◽

Low Income ◽

Industrial Waste ◽

Health Care Expenditure ◽

Empirical Methods ◽

Gas Emission ◽

Industrial Air Pollution ◽

Bayesian Quantile Regression ◽

Waste Gas

Industrial development has brought about not only rapid economic growth, but also serious environmental pollution in China, which has led to serious health problems and heavy economic burdens on healthcare. Therefore, the relationship between the industrial air pollution and health care expenditure (HCE) has attracted the attention of researchers, most of which used the traditional empirical methods, such as ordinary least squares (OLS), logistic and so on. By collecting the panel data of 30 provinces of China during 2005–2016, this paper attempts to use the Bayesian quantile regression (BQR) to reveal the impact of industrial air pollution represented by industrial waste gas emission (IWGE) on HCE in high-, middle-, low-income regions. It was found that double heterogeneity in the influence of IWGE on HCE was obvious, which revealed that people in high-, middle-, low-income regions have significantly different understandings of environmental pollution and health problems. In addition, the BQR method provided more information than the traditional empirical methods, which verified that the BQR method, as a new empirical method for previous studies, was applicable in this topic and expanded the discussion space of this research field.

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Air pollution, economic growth and health care expenditure

Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja ◽

10.1080/1331677x.2017.1314823 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 30 (1) ◽

pp. 1181-1190 ◽

Cited By ~ 25

Author(s):

Soheila Khoshnevis Yazdi ◽

Bahman Khanalizadeh

Keyword(s):

Economic Growth ◽

Health Care ◽

Air Pollution ◽

Health Care Expenditure

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Environmental and Hygienic Assessment of Ambient Air Pollution in Oil-Producing and Oil-Refining Areas of the Republic of Bashkortostan and Population Health Status

ЗДОРОВЬЕ НАСЕЛЕНИЯ И СРЕДА ОБИТАНИЯ - ЗНиСО / PUBLIC HEALTH AND LIFE ENVIRONMENT ◽

10.35627/2219-5238/2020-323-2-26-32 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 26-32

Author(s):

Z.B. Baktybaeva ◽

R.A. Suleymanov ◽

T.K. Valeev ◽

N.R. Rahmatullin ◽

E.G. Stepanov ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Carbon Monoxide ◽

Health Status ◽

Nitrogen Dioxide ◽

Population Health ◽

Respiratory Diseases ◽

Ambient Air ◽

Oil Refining ◽

Disease Rates ◽

Total Suspended Particles

Introduction. High density of oil-producing and refining facilities in certain areas of Bashkortostan significantly affects the environment including ambient air quality in residential areas. Materials and methods. We analyzed concentrations of airborne toxicants (sulfur and nitrogen oxides, nitrogen and carbon oxides, hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, xylenes, toluene, phenol and total suspended particles) and population health status in the cities of Ufa, Sterlitamak, Salavat, Blagoveshchensk, and the Tuymazinsky District in 2007–2016. Pearson's correlation coefficients (r) were used to establish possible relationships between medico-demographic indicators and air pollution. Results. Republican fuel and energy enterprises contributed the most to local air pollution levels. Gross emissions from such enterprises as Bashneft-Ufaneftekhim and Bashneft-Navoil reached 43.69–49.77 thousand tons of pollutants per year. The levels of some air pollutants exceeded their maximum permissible concentrations. Elevated concentrations of ammonia, total suspended particles, nitrogen dioxide, and carbon monoxide were registered most frequently. High rates of congenital abnormalities, respiratory diseases in infants (aged 0-1), general mortality and morbidity of the population were observed in some oil-producing and refining areas. The correlation analysis proved the relationship between the concentration of carbon monoxide and general disease rates in adults based on hospital admissions (r = 0.898), general incidence rates in children (r = 0.957), and blood disease rates in infants (r = 0.821). Respiratory diseases in children correlated with nitrogen dioxide emission levels (r = 0.899). Conclusions. Further development of oil-producing, petrochemical and oil-refining industries should be carried out taking into account socio-economic living conditions of the population.

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