IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/hecrev/v11y2021i1d10.1186_s13561-021-00321-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Investing preventive care and economic development in ageing societies: empirical evidences from OECD countries

Author

Listed:
  • Fuhmei Wang

    (National Cheng Kung University)

  • Jung-Der Wang

    (National Cheng Kung University College of Medicine
    National Cheng Kung University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University)

Abstract

Background The proportion of the elderly aged 65 years old or above will reach 16% in 2050 worldwide. Early investment in effective prevention would generally reduce the morbidity, complication, functional disability, and mortality of most chronic illnesses and save resources in both healthcare and social services. This research aims to investigate how the optimal allocation of medical resources between prevention and treatment adds value to the population’s health as well as examine the interaction between ageing, health, and economic performance. Methods This research undertakes ageing-health analyses by developing an economic growth model. Based on the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) countries’ experiences over the period from 2000 to 2017, this research further examines the hypothesis that an ageing society could increase demand for preventive and curative healthcare. Results Theoretical analysis found that the prevention share for maximizing growth is the same as that for minimizing ill health and maximizing welfare; this share increases with treatment share and ageing ratios. Estimation results from OECD countries’ experiences indicate that when treatment share increases by 1%, the prevention demand increases by 0.036%. A one-percent increase in the ageing ratio yields a change in prevention share of 0.0368%. The optimal share of prevention health expenditure to GDP would be 1.175% when the prevalence rate of ill health isat 6.13%; a higher or lower share of prevention would be accompanied with a higher prevalence of ill health. For example, a zero and 1.358% preventive health expenditure would be associated with an 18.01% prevalence of ill health, while the current share of prevention of 0.237% is associated with a 10.26% prevalence of ill health. Conclusion This study shows that appropriate prevention is associated with decreases in the prevalence rates of ill health, which in turn attains sustainable growth in productivity. Too much prevention, however, could lead to higher detection of new chronic diseases with mild severity, which would result in longer illness duration, and higher prevalence rates of ill health. With suitable allocation of medical resources, the economic growth rate will help to cancel out increases in healthcare spending for the elderly and for expenses needed for the improvement of the population’s health as a whole.

Suggested Citation

  • Fuhmei Wang & Jung-Der Wang, 2021. "Investing preventive care and economic development in ageing societies: empirical evidences from OECD countries," Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 1-9, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:hecrev:v:11:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1186_s13561-021-00321-3
    DOI: 10.1186/s13561-021-00321-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1186/s13561-021-00321-3
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1186/s13561-021-00321-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christine de la Maisonneuve & Joaquim Oliveira Martins, 2013. "Public Spending on Health and Long-term Care: A new set of projections," OECD Economic Policy Papers 6, OECD Publishing.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pablo Garcia Sanchez & Luca Marchiori & Olivier Pierrard, 2024. "Healthy aging and capital accumulation," BCL working papers 189, Central Bank of Luxembourg.
    2. Joseph Phiri & Karel Malec & Aubrey Sakala & Seth Nana Kwame Appiah-Kubi & Pavel Činčera & Mansoor Maitah & Zdeňka Gebeltová & Cathy-Austin Otekhile, 2022. "Services as a Determinant of Botswana’s Economic Sustainability," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(22), pages 1-21, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Randall S. Jones & Haruki Seitani, 2019. "Meeting fiscal challenges in Japan’s rapidly ageing society," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1569, OECD Publishing.
    2. Armel Ngami & Thomas Seegmuller, 2021. "Pollution and growth: The role of pension in the efficiency of health and environmental policies," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 17(4), pages 390-415, December.
    3. Korfhage, Thorben & Fischer-Weckemann, Björn, 2024. "Long-run consequences of informal elderly care and implications of public long-term care insurance," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    4. William Lim & Gaurav Khemka & David Pitt & Bridget Browne, 2019. "A method for calculating the implied no-recovery three-state transition matrix using observable population mortality incidence and disability prevalence rates among the elderly," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 36(3), pages 245-282, September.
    5. Geyer, Johannes & Haan, Peter & Korfhage, Thorben, 2015. "Indirect fiscal effects of long-term care insurance," Ruhr Economic Papers 584, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    6. Tennyson, Sharon & Yang, Hae Kyung, 2014. "The role of life experience in long-term care insurance decisions," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 175-188.
    7. Woodland, A., 2016. "Taxation, Pensions, and Demographic Change," Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, in: Piggott, John & Woodland, Alan (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 713-780, Elsevier.
    8. Antonio Vera & Pythagoras Petratos & Torsten Oliver Salge, 2018. "A widening gap? Static and dynamic performance differences between specialist and general hospitals," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 25-36, March.
    9. Miles Parker & Andrew Acland & Harry J Armstrong & Jim R Bellingham & Jessica Bland & Helen C Bodmer & Simon Burall & Sarah Castell & Jason Chilvers & David D Cleevely & David Cope & Lucia Costanzo & , 2014. "Identifying the Science and Technology Dimensions of Emerging Public Policy Issues through Horizon Scanning," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(5), pages 1-17, May.
    10. Pelin Varol İYIDOĞAN & Eda BALIKÇIOĞLU & H. Hakan YILMAZ, 2017. "The Tax Effects of Health Expenditures on Aging Economies: Empirical Evidence on Selected OECD Countries," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Institute for Economic Forecasting, vol. 0(1), pages 116-127, March.
    11. Douglas, R & MacCulloch, Robert, 2016. "Welfare: Savings not Taxation," Working Papers 31890, Department of Economics, The University of Auckland.
    12. Korfhage, Thorben, 2019. "Long-run consequences of informal elderly care and implications of public long-term care insurance," Ruhr Economic Papers 813, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    13. Sano, Kazuaki & Miyawaki, Atsushi & Abe, Kazuhiro & Jin, Xueying & Watanabe, Taeko & Tamiya, Nanako & Kobayashi, Yasuki, 2022. "Effects of cost sharing on long-term care service utilization among home-dwelling older adults in Japan," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(12), pages 1310-1316.
    14. Mohamed Ismail & Shereen Hussein, 2021. "An Evidence Review of Ageing, Long-Term Care Provision and Funding Mechanisms in Turkey: Using Existing Evidence to Estimate Long-Term Care Cost," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-16, June.
    15. Mr. Masahiro Nozaki & Kenichiro Kashiwase & Ikuo Saito, 2014. "Health Spending in Japan: Macro-Fiscal Implications and Reform Options," IMF Working Papers 2014/142, International Monetary Fund.
    16. Carrino, L.; & Nafilyan, V.; & Avendaño Pabon, M.;, 2019. "Should I Care or Should I Work? The Impact of Working in Older Age on Caregiving," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 19/23, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    17. Rodríguez-Míguez, E. & Abellán-Perpiñán, J.M. & Alvarez, X.C. & González, X.M. & Sampayo, A.R., 2016. "The DEP-6D, a new preference-based measure to assess health states of dependency," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 210-219.
    18. Rajatheran Moodley & Fatima Suleman, 2019. "The impact of the single exit price policy on a basket of generic medicines in South Africa, using a time series analysis from 1999 to 2014," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(7), pages 1-18, July.
    19. Mário Amorim Lopes & Álvaro Santos Almeida & Bernardo Almada-Lobo, 2018. "Forecasting the medical workforce: a stochastic agent-based simulation approach," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 52-75, March.
    20. Fernanda Mazzotta & Lavinia Parisi, 2020. "Money and time: what would you give back to me? Reciprocity between children and their elderly parents in Europe," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 37(3), pages 941-969, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:hecrev:v:11:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1186_s13561-021-00321-3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/13561 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.