Costs of Air Pollution in California’s San Joaquin Valley: A Societal Perspective of the Burden of Asthma on Emergency Departments and Inpatient Care (Journal of Asthma and Allergy)
Summary: The San Joaquin Valley (SJV) is often recognized as one of the most polluted regions in the U.S. Periods of pollution exposure are associated with increased health burden related to respiratory inflammation and undermined lung function, which aggravates respiratory diseases such as asthma and leads to symptoms such as coughing, wheezing, or difficulty breathing. Asthma costs $82 billion annually in health care costs, missed work and school in the U.S.
Employing a societal perspective, a cost of illness design was combined with environmental epidemiological methods to analyze the economic impact of O3, NO2, and PM2.5-related adverse respiratory health outcomes amongst SJV residents who attended the emergency department (ED) or were hospitalized in 2016. PM2.5. Data from the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) sources were used to identify the prevalence of asthma among people in the SJV.
Findings: The monetized value of asthma exacerbations ranged from $3,353 to $5,003 per ED visit and for hospital admissions $2,584 per inpatient day for adults 65 years and older to $3,023 per child. The estimated value to society in health care costs, productivity losses, school absences, and opportunity costs from air pollution adverse health outcomes totaled $498 million in ED visits and $223.6 million in hospital admissions for the SJV population in 2016. The marginal reduction in the background concentrations of pollutants would avert 21,786 ED adverse events and 19,328 hospitalizations from the health burden on the SJV population or $8 million cost savings due to O3, $82.5 million from NO2 reductions, and $46.2 million from decreased concentration of PM2.5.
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