Asthma and allergy: the significance of chronic conditions for individual health behaviour

Abstract

Background: In health economics, health is regarded as part of an individual's human capital. As such it depreciates over time, and investments in health are made in order to keep the stock of health capital at the desired level. Using this framework for analysis of health-related behaviour and Swedish panel data, we examined whether the presence of asthma or allergy affects perceived health and investments in health. Methods: A set of panel data for approximately 3800 individuals interviewed repeatedly in 1980/81, 1988/89, and 1996/97 was created from the Swedish biannual survey of living conditions. Self-assessed health was chosen as the indicator of health capital and the reported number of sick days as the indicator of health investment. The presence of asthma or allergy, age, wage rate, wealth, marital status, number of children, exercise and smoking habits, gender, and geographic location of household were all chosen as explanatory variables. An ordered probit model was estimated for the health equation and a Poisson model for the investment equation. Results: We found that both asthmatics and those who suffer from allergy invested more in their health than the general population. We also found that asthmatics reported significantly lower self-assessed health than the general population, while those who suffered from allergy did not differ significantly from the general population regarding their self-assessed health. Conclusion: The human capital approach was found suitable for studying the impact of asthma and allergy on individual health behaviour. Health policy measures, which reduce the individual's costs of investing in his or her health, would improve health levels. Because asthmatics were found less healthy than those suffering from allergy, the potential gains would be larger for patients with asthma than for patients with allergy. The issue of whether this would be a costeffective policy or not would require a different design and, hence, could not be solved within the present study.

Physical Activity and Health in Canadian Asthmatics

“…Studies have generally shown that people with asthma or other chronic conditions perceive their health to be lower than the general population (13)(14)(15). This is perhaps not surprising given that they have a chronic health problem; however, many other individuals with chronic conditions perceive their health to be very good or excellent, (15,16) suggesting that the presence of a chronic condition is not enough, in and of itself, to predict lower levels of perceived health.…”

Long-term detrimental consequences of the onset of type 1 diabetes on annual earnings—evidence from annual registry data in 1990–2005

“…For diabetes, the review by Milton and colleagues concluded, based on mostly smallsample studies, that persons with childhood onset of diabetes would experience lower employment rates and income following diabetic complications [9]. Nevertheless, correlations do not imply causation, and the role of education as a determinant of health, that is, that the effect proceeds from education to health, has been extensively analysed [45,46]. While this direction is relevant for lifestyle-related diseases, for example, or analyses of disease management, our analysis concerns the effect of an unanticipated, significant, health-related life event and its effect on labour-market outcomes.…”

The significance of overweight and obesity for individual health behaviour: An economic analysis based on the Swedish surveys of living conditions 1980—81, 1988—89, and 1996—97

“…The Grossman model has been estimated empirically both for the general population in various countries and for a specific sub-population, individuals suffering from asthma or allergy in Sweden, and the evidence has been broadly supportive [23][24][25][26][27].…”