title: Going up in ashes? Smoking-attributable morbidity, hospital admissions and expenditure in Greece.
abstract: Our aim was to calculate the morbidity, hospitalizations and subsequent hospital costs for the treatment of the smoking-attributable fraction of diseases in Greece using a prevalence-based annual cost approach. In 2011, smoking accounted for 199,028 hospital admissions (8.9% of the national total), with attributable hospital treatment costs calculated at more than €554 million, which represents 10.7% of the national hospital budget. These results pose a compelling reason for the European Union to champion tobacco control as a means of reducing the financial and social burden of disease in Greece and other countries currently facing a financial maelstrom.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Health Economics, National School of Public Health, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Konstantina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tsalapati
authors.affiliation: 2 Center for Global Tobacco Control, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, USA3 Smoking and Lung Cancer Research Center, Hellenic Cancer Society, Athens, Greece4 Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens, Athens, Greece vardavas@hsph.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Constantine I
authors.initials: CI
authors.lastname: Vardavas
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Health Economics, National School of Public Health, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Konstantinos
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Athanasakis
authors.affiliation: 5 Secretary General's Office, Ministry of Health and Social Solidarity, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Eleftherios
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Thireos
authors.affiliation: 6 Department of Economics, University of Piraeus, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Athanassios
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vozikis
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Health Economics, National School of Public Health, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Elpida
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pavi
authors.affiliation: 3 Smoking and Lung Cancer Research Center, Hellenic Cancer Society, Athens, Greece4 Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Panagiotis
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Behrakis
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Health Economics, National School of Public Health, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Ioannis
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kyriopoulos
mesh_terms: D006115:Greece; D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017721:Hospital Costs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000191:economics*