Journal article
Long-term effects of oral clefts on health care utilization: a sibling comparison
The European journal of health economics, Vol.16(6), pp.603-612
07/2015
DOI: 10.1007/s10198-014-0612-6
PMID: 24908286
Abstract
Oral clefts are among the most common birth defects affecting thousands of newborns each year, but little is known about their potential long-term consequences. In this paper, we explore the impact of oral clefts on health care utilization over most of the lifespan. To account for time-invariant unobservable parental characteristics, we compare affected individuals with their own unaffected siblings. The analysis is based on unique data comprising the entire cohort of individuals born with oral clefts in Denmark tracked until adulthood in administrative register data. We find that children with oral clefts use more health services than their unaffected siblings. Additional results show that the effects are driven primarily by congenital malformation-related hospitalizations and intake of anti-infectives. Although the absolute differences in most health care utilization diminish over time, affected individuals have slightly higher utilization of some health care services in adulthood (particularly for diseases of the nervous and respiratory system). These results have important implications for affected individuals, their families, and their health professionals.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Long-term effects of oral clefts on health care utilization: a sibling comparison
- Creators
- Morten Saaby Pedersen - Department of Business and Economics, Centre of Health Economics Research, University of Southern Denmark, Campusvej 55, 5230, Odense M, Denmark, msp.cebr@cbs.dkGeorge L WehbyDorthe Almind PedersenKaare Christensen
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- The European journal of health economics, Vol.16(6), pp.603-612
- Publisher
- Germany
- DOI
- 10.1007/s10198-014-0612-6
- PMID
- 24908286
- ISSN
- 1618-7598
- eISSN
- 1618-7601
- Grant note
- 1R01DD000295 / NCBDD CDC HHS
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 07/2015
- Academic Unit
- Preventive and Community Dentistry; Health Management and Policy; Economics; Public Policy Center (Archive)
- Record Identifier
- 9984064198102771
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