Scandinavian Working Papers in Economics
Karlstad University Working Papers in Economics,
Karlstad University, Department of Economics
No 5: Cost-Benefit Analyses of Sprinklers in Nursing Homes for Elderly
Henrik Jaldell ()
Additional contact information
Henrik Jaldell: Dept. of Economics, Postal: Dept of Economics, Karlstad University, Universitetsgatan 1, SE 651 88 Karlstad, Sweden
Abstract: The risk of dying in fires in nursing homes is six times the risk of dying in fires at home in Sweden. The risk of being injured in nursing homes is even higher. The reason is that fire alarms do not help if people have problems moving around, or have dementia and do not understand what is going on. One way to reduce this risk is to install fire sprinklers. The benefits depend on the value we put on elderly people living in nursing homes. Their life expectancy is 3.2 years. This study measures the benefits and compares them in terms of the monetary value of full lives, life years and quality adjusted life years (QALYs) for deaths and injuries. The results show that sprinklers are cost-effective in newly built nursing homes no matter what value of life is used. However, if sprinklers are installed in already existing buildings, they are cost-effective only if the value of a statistical life is used.
Keywords: QALY; value of statistical life; nursing home; fire safety; sprinklers; elderly
37 pages, June 4, 2012
Full text files
2012_5_pdf_79891.pdf
Questions (including download problems) about the papers in this series should be directed to Niklas Jakobsson ()
Report other problems with accessing this service to Sune Karlsson ().
RePEc:hhs:kaunek:0005This page generated on 2024-09-13 22:15:57.