Citation

Escolà-Gascón, Micó-Sanz JL, Casero-Ripollés A. Prev. Med. Rep. 2022; 30.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.pmedr.2022.102036

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Increases of health care expenditures (HCEs) challenge the financial capacity of governments and bring into question the quality of health care services in each country. It is known that modifiable risk factors (e.g. alcohol consumption) and certain environmental variables allow HCEs to be modeled without impairing the quality of healthcare services. We provide a worldwide statistical analysis of how HCEs can be reduced and with what statistical power/probability. The design was retrospective and was based on linear and nonlinear multiple regression models. The HCEs, alcohol consumption, renewable energy consumption, suicide rate, economic reversal of the environmental damage caused by CO2 emissions (ERCDE) and sales-focused jobs (SJs) were measured. The type of government and the most searched Twitter worldwide topics were also analyzed. A total of 154 countries (n) participated. Reducing alcohol consumption, SJs and ERCDE predicts linear reductions of 33.1% of HCEs. Annual alcohol consumption between 4 and 5 L per person was found to have no negative impact on HCEs. Beyond this tipping point, alcohol consumption did predict significant increases in HCEs. It was also found that renewable energy consumption exponentially explained 35.2% of the reductions in HCEs. HCEs can be reduced in each country by controlling the consumption of renewable energies, the ERCDE, and the SJs. Specifically, by controlling alcohol consumption, SJs, and ERCDE the economic reduction in HCEs could be reduced annually by as much as $228.466 per person. We offer tipping points that governments can use to make effective health policy decisions that include sustainable development goals. © 2022

Language: en

Keywords

human; government; suicide; Europe; Sustainability; lifestyle; Africa; Asia; alcohol consumption; statistical analysis; retrospective study; health care quality; environmental factor; health care cost; employment; authority; volunteer; sample size; work; Pacific islands; Western Hemisphere; Article; international organization; independent variable; energy resource; dependent variable; democracy; social media; Preventive medicine; sustainable development goal; carbon dioxide emission; Carbon dioxide emissions; environmental damage caused by carbon dioxide emission; Health care expenditure; Medical expenditures; multiple linear regression analysis; nonlinear regression analysis; renewable energy; Renewable energy consumption