Gepubliceerd in:
01-05-2012 | Spectrum
Costs and benefits of prevention, a difficult analysis
Auteur:
Bohn Stafleu van Loghum
Gepubliceerd in:
TSG - Tijdschrift voor gezondheidswetenschappen
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Uitgave 4/2012
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Extract
‘Investing in disease prevention pays’headlined the Financiële Dagblad in February 2012 in response to Pomp’s scenario analysis of the social benefits of healthy aging research. And in the slipstream of that publication discussions arose in various places, about the significance of this research, including Twitter, newspapers and the parliament. But also in the workplace of different organizations dealing with prevention the report by Marc Pomp led to discussion. And in that discussion opinions were sometimes significantly different. Sufficient reason to invite parties to speak to the significance of the report. First Marc Pomp and Erik Buskens briefly outline the report. Then comes a reaction from various sides. Jaap Koot does so from the NIGZ (he already started twittering the discussion on the day of publication of the report). Matthijs van den Berg and Casper Schoemaker of the RIVM give their reaction (they already had a reaction in the Financiële Dagblad earlier). Patrick Jeurissen and colleagues from the Ministry of Health give their personal vision, and the Spectrum closes with a response from Anne Mulder, Member of Parliament for the VVD (and involved in the Lower House debate following the publication of this report). General line of the response is that while it is very important to visualize the costs and benefits of prevention. But ultimately the question is not so much whether prevention saves money or cost money, but rather whether prevention leads to better health. …