Social Costs of Road Accidents under the Influence of Alcohol and Illegal Drugs in the Czech Republic in 2007 - Part I: Health-related Costs
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Methodology of estimating social costs of substance use stems from international guidelines adopted by WHO (Single, et al., 2003), including estimates for road accidents attributable to substance use. The cost structure divides between direct and indirect costs, direc cost consisting of healthcare and law enforcement cost, indirect costs focusing on lost productivity; road accidents also comprise of property damage.
METHOD: As a part of our study of Social costs of alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs in 2007, we had asked several institutions to provide us with relevant datasets (major health care insurance company, ministry of interior affairs et al.). The data was grouped into noseological units, and an ethiological factor was generated for them.
RESULTS: This work presents direct and indirect health related costs of road accidents attributable to alcohol and other psychoactive substances; these costs reached 838,7 mil CZK in 2007 , out of which 648,3 mil CZK attributable to alcohol and 190,4 mil CZK attributable to other psychoactive substances. This in total resulted in 12,5 % of all health related costs in traffic.
The highest share of this amount was attributable to indirect costs (82 % for alcohol and 71 % for illicit drugs), mainly due to mortality. Mortality was estimated from other than police sources; the study points out some posibilities for estimation from other than police sources.