Length of hospitalization--an indicator of social costs of disabilities from traffic injuries.
The social costs of disabilities are not generally included in estimates of the costs of traffic accidents, primarily because of measurement problems. This paper examines the disability consequences of traffic injuries in New Zealand and applies social cost values to them. A strong correlation is found to exist between the disability consequence of accidents and the average length of stay in hospital. Information on the latter is commonly available and therefore provides a basis for estimating disability costs. An interesting finding of the analysis is that less than 16% of traffic injury types, represented by the 3-digit ICD classification, account for more than 80% of the total social cost of disability. The implications for countermeasure policy are identified.
Guria
J C
JC
Land Transport Division, Ministry of Transport, Wellington, New Zealand.
D015998:Abbreviated Injury Scale; D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000191:economics / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000145:classification*; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000191:economics*; D009520:New Zealand; D011788:Quality of Life; D026712:Value of Life; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000145:classification / Q000191:economics / Q000523:psychology*