Citation:
Bloom, D., Chen, S., & McGovern, M. (2018). The Economic Burden of Non-Communicable Diseases and Mental Health Conditions: Results for Costa Rica, Jamaica, and Peru. Pan American Journal of Public Health , 42 (e18).
 | mcgovern_pajph.pdf | 2.01 MB |
Abstract:
ObjectivesWe extend the World Health Organization’s (WHO) EPIC model and apply it to analyze the macroeconomic impact of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and mental health conditions in Costa Rica, Jamaica, and Peru.
Methods
The EPIC model quantifies the impact of NCDs and mental health conditions on aggregate output solely through the effect of chronic conditions on labor supply due to mortality. In contrast, the expanded EPIC-H Plus framework also incorporates reductions in effective labor supply due to morbidity and negative effects of health expenditure on output via the diversion of productive savings and reduced capital accumulation. We apply this methodology to Costa Rica, Jamaica, and Peru, and estimate the economic burden of all NCDs and mental health conditions in these countries.
Results
Overall, our results show total losses associated with these NCDs and mental health conditions over the period 2015–2030 of $81.96 billion 2015 USD for Costa Rica, $18.45 billion for Jamaica, and $477.33 billion for Peru. The costliest condition varies by country.
Conclusions
These results indicate that the economic impact of NCDs and mental health conditions is substantial and that interventions to reduce the prevalence of chronic conditions in Latin American countries are likely to be highly cost beneficial.