Archive

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Med. Pr. 2002;53(4)

Assessment of efficiency of investment in workers' health: economic issues

Ekonomiczne problemy oceny efektywności inwestowania w zdrowie pracujących

Izabela Rydlewska-Liszkowska, Lech T. Dawydzik

Abstract

The economic analysis of efficiency of investment in health care and health at large by means of cost - benefit or cost - effectiveness techniques is the subject of implementation work in a number of countries. Poland's integration with the countries ofthe European Union justifies the need to understand and to use economic analyses. Unfortunately,these activities encounter many methodological and executive barriers. The investments in workers' health are not only investments in health care and the improvement of working conditions, but also in compensations, including financial ones, resulting from adverse effects of factors influencing the health of working population. The financial reporting system that exists in Poland does not ensure the possibility of full presentation of the aggregated data on the financing of activities for workers' health and diminishing of the adverse effects of factors present in the work environment.
The information on the outcome of the investments in workers' health come from different sources, which means that it applies to different groups subjected to the analysis. The problem lies not only in the assessment of profitability of health investments but also in the social problem of the division of the resultant costs and benefits among various branches of the national economy. Therefore, the analyses involving mutual relations between individual sectors that invest in workers' health and those that bear consequences is essential in the terms of economic analyses. The authors present the determinants of economic evaluation in regard to health of working population in Poland.

Key words

economic analysis, investment in health care, investment effects