Factors affecting hospital admission and recovery stay duration of in-patient motor victims in Spain

Miguel Santolino (), Catalina Bolancé () and Manuela Alcañiz ()
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Miguel Santolino: Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona
Catalina Bolancé: Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona
Manuela Alcañiz: Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona

No 201119, IREA Working Papers from University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics

Abstract: Hospital expenses are a major cost driver of healthcare systems in Europe, with motor injuries being the leading mechanism of hospitalizations. This paper investigates the injury characteristics which explain the hospitalization of victims of traffic accidents that took place in Spain. Using a motor insurance database with 16,081 observations a generalized Tobit regression model is applied to analyse the factors that influence both the likelihood of being admitted to hospital after a motor collision and the length of hospital stay in the event of admission. The consistency of Tobit estimates relies on the normality of perturbation terms. Here a semi-parametric regression model was fitted to test the consistency of estimates, concluding that a normal distribution of errors cannot be rejected. Among other results, it was found that older men with fractures and injuries located in the head and lower torso are more likely to be hospitalized after the collision, and that they also have a longer expected length of hospital recovery stay.

Keywords: Body injuries; Heckit estimator; semi-parametric estimator; Hausman test JEL classification:C24; I10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2011-10, Revised 2011-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cis and nep-hea
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ira:wpaper:201119

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