Health Outcomes

• Respiratory outcomes, Metabolic outcomes, Neurological/Cognitive outcomes

Health Outcome List:

• Reviewed publications that examined — respiratory outcomes (asthma)
• metabolic outcomes (obesity)
• neurodevelopmental outcomes (mental retardation)

Environmental Agents

List of Environmental Agents:

• Reviewed publications that examined — metals (lead, methyl mercury)

Source of Environmental Agents:

• Reviewed publications that examined — lead in gasoline
• lead in paint
• mercury from coal-fired power plants

Economic Evaluation / Methods and Source

Type:

• Cost analysis (CA), Cost-benefit analysis (CBA), Cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA)

Cost Measures:

• Reviewed publications that examined costs related to the following — healthcare expenses
• hospitalizations
• prescription drugs
• outpatient visits and emergency room visits
• lost economic productivity
• QALYs lost
• cost of implementing interventions

Potential Cost Measures:

• Not available

Benefits Measures:

• Reviewed publications that assessed benefits of reducing children's exposure to environmental agents, such as — quality adjusted life years (QALYs) or disability adjusted life years (DALYs) saved/gained
• savings in healthcare expenses and educational costs
• increased economic productivity
• reduced incidence/prevention of illness (e.g., obesity, childhood lead poisoning, mental retardation)

Potential Benefits Measures:

• Not available

Location:

• Not available

Models Used:

• Review described the environmentally attributable fraction (EAF) model

Models References:

• References cited in publication — Smith et al., 1999

Methods Used:

• This review article compared three types of economic evaluations, described the strengths and weaknesses, and provided examples of each. The authors discussed data sources commonly used in economic health analyses and methodological gaps and issues.

Sources Used:

• Authors recommended several data sources for conducting environmental health economic analyses, such as — NHANES (to quantify environmental exposures); National Health Interview Survey (for disease prevalence and incidence attributable to environmental exposures); Nationwide Inpatient Sample or National Hospital Discharge Survey (to quantify hospitalizations); Nationwide Emergency Department Sample or the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (to quantify emergency room visits); National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey or the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (to quantify outpatient utilization)

Economic Citation / Fundings

Citation:

• Trasande L. Economics of children's environmental health. The Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine. 2011. 78; 1.
• Pubmed
• DOI

NIEHS Funding:

• Not available

Other Funding: Not available