O-40 Estimating the Direct Medical and Indirect Cost of Interpersonal Violence Injuries: A Three Country Study
Author(s):
J Agard, N Sobers, H Wong, M Joseph, J Toppin, N Florquin, A-S Fabre, R King, G Gordon-Strachan, SG Anderson
Year of Presentation:
2023
Objective: To estimate the direct medical and indirect cost
of interpersonal violence injuries in Barbados, Bahamas and
Jamaica in 2019.
Methods: The study retrospectively reviewed 298 medical records of interpersonal injuries from 2019, in Barbados, Bahamas and Jamaica using random and convenience sampling. The “World Health Organization manual and methodology for estimating the economic costs of injuries due to interpersonal and self-directed violence” was used to estimate the economic costs of interpersonal violence. Unit cost information from services and medications utilised was collected and applied to the health care inputs collected from patient records. Cost estimations were done by injury severity as outlined by the manual. Indirect costs were estimated using productivity loss.
Results: Based on available incidence figures, the total direct medical costs in 2019 was US $ 1.3 million in the Bahamas, US$ 451,000 in Barbados and US $1.1 million in Jamaica. The average direct medical cost per incident in 2019 was highest for serious injuries compared to other injury severities in all countries studied. Indirect costs due to productivity losses were highest for all countries for fatal injuries.
Conclusion: The estimates indicate that fatal injuries tend to have the highest associated indirect costs and serious injuries the highest direct medical costs. The study results can be used to advocate for interpersonal conflict resolution programmes and tighter firearm restrictions.