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The health care costs of childhood obesity in Australia: An instrumental variables approach

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  • Black, Nicole
  • Hughes, Robert
  • Jones, Andrew M.

Abstract

The effect of childhood obesity on medical costs incurred by the Australian Government is estimated using five waves of panel data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, which is linked to public health insurance administrative records from Medicare Australia. Instrumental variables estimators are used to address concerns about measurement error and selection bias. The additional annual medical costs due to overweight and obesity among 6 to 13 year olds is about $43 million (in 2015 AUD). This is driven by a higher utilisation of general practitioner and specialist doctors. The results suggest that the economic consequences of childhood obesity are much larger than previously estimated.

Suggested Citation

  • Black, Nicole & Hughes, Robert & Jones, Andrew M., 2018. "The health care costs of childhood obesity in Australia: An instrumental variables approach," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 1-13.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:31:y:2018:i:c:p:1-13
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2018.07.003
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    Cited by:

    1. Christian Dustmann & Uta Schoenberg & Malte Sandner, 2022. "The effects of sun intensity during pregnancy and in the first 12 months of life on childhood obesity," RF Berlin - CReAM Discussion Paper Series 2215, Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RF Berlin) - Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM).
    2. Dixon, Padraig & Hollingworth, William & Harrison, Sean & Davies, Neil M. & Davey Smith, George, 2020. "Mendelian Randomization analysis of the causal effect of adiposity on hospital costs," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    3. Danusha Jayawardana & Brenda Gannon & Jenny Doust & Gita D. Mishra, 2023. "Excess healthcare costs of psychological distress in young women: Evidence from linked national Medicare claims data," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(3), pages 715-734, March.
    4. Bach Xuan Tran & Son Nghiem & Clifford Afoakwah & Carl A. Latkin & Giang Hai Ha & Thao Phuong Nguyen & Linh Phuong Doan & Hai Quang Pham & Cyrus S.H. Ho & Roger C.M. Ho, 2019. "Characterizing Obesity Interventions and Treatment for Children and Youths During 1991–2018," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-11, October.
    5. Christoph F. Kurz & Michael Laxy, 2020. "Application of Mendelian Randomization to Investigate the Association of Body Mass Index with Health Care Costs," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 40(2), pages 156-169, February.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Medical costs; Child; Ren; Overweight; Obesity; BMI; Instrumental variable;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • C26 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Instrumental Variables (IV) Estimation

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