Health interventions in early childhood could save
billions in adult health costs
27 May 2009
A study by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the
US has found that promoting the health of young children before five years of age
could save US society up to US$65 billion in future healthcare costs. The results are
published in the May 15, 2009, issue of Academic Pediatrics [1].
“Our review found convincing evidence that the four health problems
we studied — early life tobacco exposure, unintentional injury, obesity
and mental health — constitute significant burdens on the health of
preschool-age children and are antecedents of health problems across the
life span,” said Bernard Guyer, MD, lead author of the study and the
Zanvyl Kreiger Professor of Children's Health with the Bloomberg
School’s Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health.
“These health problems affect approximately one-third to one-half of
children born in the US, and we estimated that total lifetime societal
cost could be about $50,000 per child — which translates to US$65-100
billion for the entire birth cohort of children. The currently available
research justifies targeted investments in early childhood health
promotion as a means to averting future health costs and improving
overall health during their life span.”
Researchers conducted a systematic review of early childhood
interventions using multiple health databases: PubMEd, PsycINFO,
National Health Service Economic Evaluation Database, the National
Bureau of Economic Research working paper database and EconLit.
Guyer
and his colleagues examined the magnitude of the future effects of
tobacco exposure, unintentional injury, obesity and mental health. They
looked at prevalence of these issues during the target age period, their
cost implications across the life span, the availability of preventive
interventions in this period of life and evidence indicating that
prevention of these problems early in life would pay off or save costs
in the future.
Researchers found that the available evidence for the
effectiveness of intervention in this age group was strongest in the
case of preventing tobacco exposure and controlling unintentional
injuries.
Smoking impacts young children through prenatal exposure and
environmental tobacco smoke. In the US, an estimated 25% of
children are exposed to environmental tobacco smoke by household
members, and 500,000 babies are born annually to mothers who smoke
during pregnancy, according to tobacco prevention studies.
Environmental
tobacco smoke programs specifically aimed at reducing exposure to
children within the first five years of life would produce an estimated
cost savings of $500 million.
Injuries are the leading cause of death, disabilities and health care
utilization for US children and teenagers between the ages of 1 and
19. Recent studies have concluded that both fatal and nonfatal injuries
among children from infancy to four years resulted in $4.7 billion for
lifelong medical costs and $14 billion for present and future
productivity losses.
While obesity among preschoolers has recently been
recognized as a major health problem, age-appropriate prevention and
intervention strategies are still lacking. Researchers believe there is
a need for carefully targeted research to examine the relationship
between early childhood preventive interventions and health outcomes
across the life course.
“The four children’s health topics selected demonstrate that the
policy solutions needed to address them go well beyond the medical model
of a doctor treating a sick child,” said Sai Ma, PhD, corresponding
author of the study and an assistant scientist with the Bloomberg
School’s Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health.
“Meeting the underlying health needs of American children will require
decision makers and practitioners to understand complex multiple
determinants of health and disease, as well as public health approaches
that involve family, community and national interventions.”
Reference
1. Bernard Guyer, Sai Ma, Holly Grason, Kevin D Frick, Deborah F
Perry, Alyssa Sharkey and Jennifer McIntosh. Early Childhood Health
Promotion and Its Life Course Health Consequences. Academic
Pediatrics, Volume 9, Issue 3, May-June 2009, Pages 142-149.e71
Bookmark this page