Honeycutt, A., Dunlap, L., Chen, H., Homsi, G., Grosse, S., & Schendel, D. (2004). Economic costs associated with mental retardation, cerebral palsy, hearing loss, and vision impairment. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Retrieved April 27, 2006, from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5303a4.htm
Developmental disabilities (DDs) are chronic conditions that initially manifest in persons aged less than 18 years and result in impairment of physical health, mental health, cognition, speech, language, or self-care. The majority of persons with DDs require long-term supportive care or services. In 2003, RTI International (Research Triangle Park, North Carolina) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) analyzed data from multiple surveys and reports to estimate the direct and indirect economic costs associated with four DDs in the United States. On the basis of that analysis, estimated lifetime costs are expected to total $51.2 billion for persons born in 2000 with mental retardation, $11.5 billion for persons with cerebral palsy, $2.1 billion for persons with hearing loss, and $2.5 billion for persons with vision impairment. These estimates underscore the need for effective primary and secondary prevention measures (e.g., newborn screening for hearing and metabolic disorders and smoking-cessation counseling for pregnant women) to reduce the costs associated with DDs.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Honeycutt, A. et al. (2004). Economic costs associated with mental retardation, cerebral palsy, hearing loss, and vision impairment.
Are the conclusions of this article supported by its data?
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3 comments:
This article's conclusions seem to be fairly supported by its data, though there were several limitations. The authors reported the fact that the data was based on reports, they did not account for comorbidities, and they excluded some costs. These all appear to be severe limitations and lead me to say that while the data is interesting and important, it is definitely equivocal.
I do think the conclusions are supported by the data. This was more of a report on findings than a research experiment. I'm not familiar with how to perform a estimated cost analysis, so I thought the results sounded good. However, the numbers seemed really high!
This was a very intersting article. I felt that the data presented was thorough, but as the authors reported, had some limitations. This article used results and information from mostly questionnaire-type publications. This kind of information is always subject to individual bias, but an important point that the article pointed out was that because of that there were no means to characterize the severity of the Developmental Disability (something that could REALLY impact the outcomes/implications of the data presented in this particular article). Because of this and the other limitations (some significant limitations for the desires purpose of the article) that the authors pointed out, I would be hesitant to lend too much credibilitiy to the findings.
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