@article{ref1,
title="Medical costs and economic production losses due to injuries in the Netherlands",
journal="Journal of trauma",
year="1997",
author="Mackenbach, J. P. and van Roijen, L. and van Beeck, Eduard F.",
volume="42",
number="6",
pages="1116-1123",
abstract="BACKGROUND: To support injury control, we assessed the direct medical costs and indirect costs of injuries in the Netherlands, making use of recent advances in health economics. METHODS: We estimated the direct medical costs with the help of available data on health care utilization as a consequence of injuries. In our calculations of indirect costs, we used two alternative approaches. We used the traditional human-capital approach, which estimates the potential economic production losses caused by diseases or injuries. In addition, we applied the friction-costs method, which was recently developed as an attempt to measure the actual economic production losses to society. RESULTS: Injuries are an important source of medical costs and economic production losses. Almost two-thirds of the medical costs are the result of injuries among females (mainly domestic injuries of elderly women). On the contrary, independent of the method used, more than 80% of the indirect costs are the result of injuries among males (mainly caused by a high frequency of traffic injuries, occupational injuries, and sports injuries among young males). The application of the friction-costs method confirms the importance of injuries as a source of production losses in comparison with other diseases, showing that they belong to the main three causes of indirect costs to society. CONCLUSIONS: Estimates of the medical costs and both the potential and actual economic production losses to society clearly demonstrate that injuries should be a major concern for health policy makers and the medical profession.",
language="",
issn="0022-5282",
doi="",
url="http://dx.doi.org/"
}