title: The Per Case and Total Annual Costs of Foodborne Illness in the United States.
abstract: We present an economic welfare-based method to estimate the health costs associated with foodborne illness caused by known viruses, bacteria, parasites, allergens, two marine biotoxins, and unspecified agents. The method generates health costs measured in both quality-adjusted life years and in dollars. We calculate the reduction in quality-adjusted life days caused by the illness and add reductions in quality-adjusted life years from any secondary effects that are estimated to occur. For fatal cases, we calculate the life years lost due to premature death. We add direct medical expenses to the monetary costs as derived from estimates of willingness to pay to reduce health risks. In total, we estimate that foodborne illness represents an annual burden to society of approximately $36 billion, with an average identified illness estimated to reduce quality-adjusted life days by 0.84, which is monetized and included in the average cost burden per illness of $3,630.
authors.affiliation: U.S. Food and Drug Administration, College Park, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Travis
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Minor
authors.affiliation: U.S. Food and Drug Administration, College Park, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lasher
authors.affiliation: U.S. Food and Drug Administration, College Park, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Karl
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Klontz
authors.affiliation: U.S. Food and Drug Administration, College Park, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Bradley
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.affiliation: U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Clark
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nardinelli
authors.affiliation: U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Springfield, VA, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zorn
mesh_terms: D017281:Cost of Illness; D036262:Empirical Research; D005516:Food Microbiology; D005517:Foodborne Diseases / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D011788:Quality of Life; D014481:United States
keywords: Foodborne illness; QALY