Are cost of injury studies useful?

• health economics
• priority setting
• cost of illness

Studies from the USA and Canada have attempted to estimate the economic costs associated with injury.1–3 The rationale for these studies is often to provide data for priority setting (both research and policy). In other words, the expression of the cost of injury in monetary terms is thought to illustrate the importance of the problem and, therefore, its high priority for research and health services resources. For example, some authors have suggested that policy makers identify “high cost” injuries (compared with other injuries) and make these injuries a priority for treatment and prevention programs.1,3

Cost of injury studies may be useful in the “political” sense, for example, by raising public and political awareness of the burden of injury. Our argument, however, is that such studies are not helpful in the context of setting priorities for resource allocation and research activities. Furthermore, concentration on cost of injury studies may divert policy makers from what they need to know in order to maximise societal benefits from resource allocation. In this paper, we briefly describe the cost of injury method, explain why cost of injury studies have limited usefulness, and explain how, in our view, health economics can better contribute to the field of injury prevention.