The cost-effectiveness of New York City's Safe Routes to School program

P.A. Muennig, M. Epstein, G. Li and C. DiMaggio

American Journal of Public Health, 2014, vol. 104, issue 7, 1294-1299

Abstract: Objective. We evaluated the cost-effectiveness of a package of roadway modifications in New York City funded under the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program. Methods. We used a Markov model to estimate long-term impacts of SRTS on injury reduction and the associated savings in medical costs, lifelong disability, and death.Model inputs included societal costs (in 2013 US dollars) and observed spatiotemporal changes in injury rates associated with New York City's implementation of SRTS relative to control intersections. Structural changes to roadways were assumed to last 50 years before further investment is required. Therefore, costs were discounted over 50 consecutive cohorts of modified roadway users under SRTS. Results. SRTS was associated with an overall net societal benefit of $230 million and 2055 quality-adjusted life years gained in New York City. Conclusions. SRTS reduces injuries and saves money over the long run.

Keywords: adolescent; article; child; cost benefit analysis; economics; health promotion; human; methodology; probability; quality adjusted life year; safety; school; statistical model; United States; walking, Adolescent; Child; Cost-Benefit Analysis; Health Promotion; Humans; Markov Chains; Models, Economic; New York City; Quality-Adjusted Life Years; Safety; Schools; Walking (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.2105/AJPH.2014.301868

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2014.301868_8

DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2014.301868

Access Statistics for this article

American Journal of Public Health is currently edited by Alfredo Morabia

More articles in American Journal of Public Health from American Public Health Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christopher F Baum ().