Economic Burden of Illness in Canada, 1993

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Recommendations

Health information systems and future analyses of the economic burden of illness should do the following.

1. Improve data sources and refine methods for direct and indirect cost components to provide more comprehensive information for specific diseases (several specific suggestions in the discussion address the present data limitations).
2. Organize all health-related cost data according to the most recent version of the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases in order to effectively and accurately determine the distribution of health resources by diagnostic category.
3. Refine methods to establish the costs of illness attributable to various risk factors (e.g. tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption).
4. Refine cost-of-illness methods to consider the multidimensional nature of disease (i.e. the costs associated with secondary causes of illness and disability).

In using these estimates, decision makers are encouraged to remember these points.

1. Consider the overall "health burden" (i.e. incidence, prevalence, number of deaths, years of life lost, use of health care resources, quality of life implications, economic impact, etc.) of illness when making decisions.
2. Strengthen research, health promotion and disease prevention programs, especially those that target illnesses with the greatest "health burden" (i.e. cardiovascular diseases, musculoskeletal diseases, injuries, cancer, mental disorders, respiratory diseases) in order to minimize the burden of illness in Canada.

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