Recent Findings in Injury Research Described by M.A. Yellman and Colleagues (Preventing deaths and injuries from house fires: a cost-benefit analysis…

Health & Medicine Week

Recent Findings in Injury Research Described by M.A. Yellman and Colleagues (Preventing deaths and injuries from house fires: a cost-benefit analysis of a community-based smoke alarm installation programme)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health & Medicine Week -- Investigators publish new report on Injury Research. According to news reporting from Dallas, Texas, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, "Operation Installation (OI), a community-based smoke alarm installation programme in Dallas, Texas, targets houses in high-risk urban census tracts. Residents of houses that received OI installation (or programme houses) had 68% fewer medically treated house fire injuries (non-fatal and fatal) compared with residents of non-programme houses over an average of 5.2 years of follow-up during an effectiveness evaluation conducted from 2001 to 2011."

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research, "To estimate the cost-benefit of OI. A mathematical model incorporated programme cost and effectiveness data as directly observed in OI. The estimated cost per smoke alarm installed was based on a retrospective analysis of OI expenditures from administrative records, 2006-2011. Injury incidence assumptions for a population that had the OI programme compared with the same population without the OI programme was based on the previous OI effectiveness study, 2001-2011. Unit costs for medical care and lost productivity associated with fire injuries were from a national public database. From a combined payers' perspective limited to direct programme and medical costs, the estimated incremental cost per fire injury averted through the OI installation programme was $128,800 (2013 US$). When a conservative estimate of lost productivity among victims was included, the incremental cost per fire injury averted was negative, suggesting long-term cost savings from the programme. The OI programme from 2001 to 2011 resulted in an estimated net savings of $3.8 million, or a $3.21 return on investment for every dollar spent on the programme using a societal cost perspective."

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: "Community smoke alarm installation programmes could be cost-beneficial in high-fire-risk neighbourhoods."

For more information on this research see: Preventing deaths and injuries from house fires: a cost-benefit analysis of a community-based smoke alarm installation programme. Injury Prevention, 2017;():. (BMJ Publishing Group - group.bmj.com/; Injury Prevention - injuryprevention.bmj.com/)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting M.A. Yellman, Injury Prevention Center of Greater Dallas, Dallas, Texas, United States. Additional authors for this research include C. Peterson, M.A. McCoy, S. Stephens-Stidham, E. Caton, J.J. Barnard, T.O. Padgett, C. Florence and G.R Istre (see also Injury Research).