Health Economics

BMJ 2011; 343:d5506 http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/bmj.d5506 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21972295 ABSTRACT We constructed a state transition, compartmental, mathematical model of tuberculosis epidemics to estimate the impact of alternative future smoking trends on tuberculosis control. We projected tuberculosis incidence, prevalence, and mortality in each World Health Organization region from 2010 to 2050, and incorporated changing trends in smoking, case detection,...

Dr. Barbara Yawn, Director of Research at Olmsted Medical Center, provides an overview of her study (http://tinyurl.com/mbnww3) on Health Care Utilization and the Cost Burden of Herpes Zoster, published in the September 2009 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings (www.mayoclinicproceedings.com).

Background Large state tobacco control programs have been shown to reduce smoking and would be expected to affect health care costs. We investigate the effect of California's large-scale tobacco control program on aggregate personal health care expenditures in the state. Methods and Findings Cointegrating regressions were used to predict (1) the difference in per capita cigarette consumption between California and 38 control states as a function of the...

Stanton Glantz (of the University of California, San Francisco) and colleagues find that the California state tobacco control program is associated not only with reduced smoking, but with reductions in health care costs as well.