Child health interventions save billions

BALTIMORE, May 23 (UPI) -- Four health interventions before a U.S. child is age 5 could save society up to $65 billion in future healthcare costs, researchers estimate.

Dr. Bernard Guyer of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore said four health problems studied -- early life tobacco exposure, unintentional injury, obesity and mental health -- constitute significant burdens on the health of preschool-age children and are antecedents of health problems across the life span.

"These health problems affect approximately one-third to one-half of children born in the United States, and we estimated that total lifetime societal cost could be about $50,000 per child -- which translates to $65 to S100 billion for the entire birth cohort of children," said Guyer, the study's lead author.

The researchers conducted a systematic review of early childhood interventions using multiple health databases.

Guyer and his colleagues examined the magnitude of the future effects of tobacco exposure, unintentional injury, obesity and mental health. They looked at prevalence of these issues during the target age period, their cost implications across the life span, the availability of preventive interventions.

The findings were published in Academic Pediatrics.