Expenditures for Unintentional Injuries among the Elderly

Abstract

This article presents national estimates of the probability of having an unintentional injury, the types of medical care associated with unintentional injuries, and the costs of unintentional injuries that occurred in calender year 1977 for persons aged 65 and older. Data come from the 1977 National Medical Care Expenditure Survey (NMCES) and the 1977 National Nursing Home Survey (NNHS). Among persons aged 65 and older, we found differences in the probability of having an unintentional injury by age, sex, and living arrangement, which suggests that unintentional injuries are not "accidental," or random, events. Our estimates indicate that total medical care expenditures for unintentional injuries for the elderly population in 1977 may have been over $2 billion. Using simple adjustments, we also estimated that the amount expended on injury-related medical care in 1984 might have been as high as $5 billion. Given the large amount of monetary, and presumably nonmonetary, costs associated with unintentional injuries, programs designed to reduce such injuries may well pay off in a cost-benefit or cost-effectiveness framework.