Findings from A. Steventon and Co-Authors Broaden Understanding of Health Economics (Estimating Lifetime Costs of Social Care: A Bayesian Approach…

Findings from A. Steventon and Co-Authors Broaden Understanding of Health Economics (Estimating Lifetime Costs of Social Care: A Bayesian Approach Using Linked Administrative Datasets from Three Geographical Areas)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health & Medicine Week -- New research on Health and Medicine is the subject of a report. According to news reporting originating in London, United Kingdom, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, "We estimated lifetime costs of publicly funded social care, covering services such as residential and nursing care homes, domiciliary care and meals. Like previous studies, we constructed microsimulation models."

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research, "However, our transition probabilities were estimated from longitudinal, linked administrative health and social care datasets, rather than from survey data. Administrative data were obtained from three geographical areas of England, and we estimated transition probabilities in each of these sites flexibly using Bayesian methods. This allowed us to quantify regional variation as well as the impact of structural and parameter uncertainty regarding the transition probabilities. Expected lifetime costs at age 65 were 20,200-27,000 pound for men and 38,700-49,000 pound for women, depending on which of the three areas was used to calibrate the model. Thus, patterns of social care spending differed markedly between areas, with mean costs varying by almost 10,000 pound (25%) across the lifetime for people of the same age and gender."

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: "Allowing for structural and parameter uncertainty had little impact on expected lifetime costs, but slightly increased the risk of very high costs, which will have implications for insurance products for social care through increasing requirements for capital reserves."

For more information on this research see: Estimating Lifetime Costs of Social Care: A Bayesian Approach Using Linked Administrative Datasets from Three Geographical Areas. Health Economics, 2015;24(12):1573-1587. Health Economics can be contacted at: Wiley-Blackwell, 111 River St, Hoboken 07030-5774, NJ, USA. (Wiley-Blackwell - www.wiley.com/; Health Economics - onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-1050)

Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting A. Steventon, Hlth Fdn, London, United Kingdom (see also Health and Medicine).

Keywords for this news article include: London, Europe, United Kingdom, Health and Medicine

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