OECD Health Working Papers
This series is designed to make available to a wider readership health studies prepared for use within the OECD. Authorship is usually collective, but principal writers are named. The papers are generally available only in their original language - English or French - with a summary in the other.
- ISSN: 18152015 (online)
- https://doi.org/10.1787/18152015
The Prevention of Lifestyle-Related Chronic Diseases
an Economic Framework
This paper provides an economic perspective on the prevention of chronic diseases, focusing in
particular on diseases linked to lifestyle choices. The proposed economic framework is centred on the
hypothesis that the prevention of chronic diseases may provide the means for increasing social welfare,
enhancing health equity, or both, relative to a situation in which chronic diseases are simply treated once
they emerge. Testing this hypothesis requires the completion of several conceptual and methodological
steps. The pathways through which chronic diseases are generated must be identified as well as the levers
that could modify those pathways. Justification for action must be sought by examining whether the
determinants of chronic diseases are simply the outcome of efficient market dynamics, or the effect of
market and rationality failures preventing individuals from achieving the best possible outcomes. Where
failures exist, possible preventive interventions must be conceived, whose expected impact on individual
choices should be commensurate to the extent of those failures and to the severity of the outcomes arising
from them. A positive impact of such interventions on social welfare and health equity should be assessed
empirically through a comprehensive evaluation before interventions are implemented.
Keywords: market failure, prevention, cost-benefit analysis, health equity, rationality, cost-effectiveness analysis, choice, health determinants, non-communicable diseases
JEL:
H23: Public Economics / Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue / Taxation and Subsidies: Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies;
I18: Health, Education, and Welfare / Health / Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health;
I12: Health, Education, and Welfare / Health / Health Behavior;
H51: Public Economics / National Government Expenditures and Related Policies / Government Expenditures and Health
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