Quantification of the Economic Burden of Premature Mortality: The Case for the Three Least and Most Burdensome Countries within the European Union

Abstract

Abstract Premature mortality affects both developing and developed countries, having social and economic impacts. On the social side, premature mortality creates a shift in the population which affects the adequate functioning of systems like the pension funding. On the economic side, the income lost due premature mortality generate an impact both at household and macro level. The existing evidence, points towards a quantification of this burden as a function of the GDP, which lacks specificity to better understand the impact of this mortality or is leaning towards the purely epidemiological impact of mortality. a combination of using two methods to quantify economic burden, provides a different alternative to estimate the burden. the results show differences when using the value of statistical life method and the proposed modified production function. Having different methods to quantify economic burden of mortality provides another set of tools for researchers looking to quantify its impact and assess information to develop more specific public health interventions to address this.