Lievens Delfine, Vander Laenen Freya, Christiaens Johan
Department of Accountancy and Corporate Finance, Ghent University, Sint-Pietersplein 7 9000, Ghent, Belgium.
Subst Abuse Treat Prev Policy. 2014 Jun 30;9:26. doi: 10.1186/1747-597X-9-26.
In view of the current economic crisis and the resulting austerity measures being implemented by governments across Europe, public expenditure for substance abuse treatment has increasingly become a subject of discussion. An EU cross-country comparison would allow an estimation of the total amount of public resources spent on substance abuse treatment, compare various substance abuse treatment funding options, and evaluate the division of expenditures between alcohol and illegal drugs. The purpose of this study is to estimate the public spending of EU countries for alcohol and illegal drug abuse treatment in hospitals.
Our study uses a uniform methodology in order to enable valid cross-national comparisons. Our data are drawn from the Eurostat database, which provides anno 2010 data on government spending for the treatment of illegal drug and alcohol abuse in 21 EU member states. The cross-country comparison is restricted to hospitals, since data were unavailable for other types of treatment providers. The systematic registration of in- and outpatient data is essential to monitoring public expenditures on substance abuse treatment using international databases.
Total public spending for hospital-based treatment of illegal drug and alcohol abuse in the 21 EU member states studied is estimated to be 7.6 billion euros. Per capita expenditures for treatment of illegal drug abuse vary, ranging from 0.1 euros in Romania to 13 euros in Sweden. For alcohol abuse, that figure varied from 0.9 euros in Bulgaria to 24 euros in Austria. These results confirm other studies indicating that public expenditures for alcohol treatment exceed that for illegal drug treatment.
Multiple factors may influence the number of hospital days for alcohol or illegal substance abuse treatment, and expenditures fluctuate accordingly. In this respect, we found a strong correlation between gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and public expenditures per hospital day. The prevalence of problematic (illegal or legal) drug use in a country did not correlate significantly with the number of hospital days. Other factors must be included in the analysis of public expenditures for the treatment of substance abuse, such as the drug policy in a given country and the social norms regarding alcohol consumption.
鉴于当前的经济危机以及欧洲各国政府正在实施的紧缩措施，用于药物滥用治疗的公共支出日益成为讨论的话题。一项欧盟跨国比较将有助于估计用于药物滥用治疗的公共资源总额，比较各种药物滥用治疗资金选项，并评估酒精和非法药物之间的支出分配情况。本研究的目的是估计欧盟国家在医院用于酒精和非法药物滥用治疗的公共支出。
我们的研究采用统一的方法，以便进行有效的跨国比较。我们的数据来自欧盟统计局数据库，该数据库提供了2010年21个欧盟成员国政府用于非法药物和酒精滥用治疗的支出数据。由于其他类型治疗提供者的数据不可用，跨国比较仅限于医院。使用国际数据库系统登记住院和门诊数据对于监测药物滥用治疗的公共支出至关重要。
在所研究的21个欧盟成员国中，用于医院非法药物和酒精滥用治疗的公共支出总额估计为76亿欧元。用于非法药物滥用治疗的人均支出各不相同，从罗马尼亚的0.1欧元到瑞典的13欧元不等。对于酒精滥用，这一数字从保加利亚的0.9欧元到奥地利的24欧元不等。这些结果证实了其他研究，表明酒精治疗的公共支出超过了非法药物治疗的支出。
多种因素可能影响酒精或非法物质滥用治疗所占用的住院天数，支出也相应波动。在这方面，我们发现人均国内生产总值（GDP）与每天每家医院的公共支出之间存在很强的相关性。一个国家中有问题（非法或合法）药物使用的流行率与住院天数没有显著相关性。在分析药物滥用治疗的公共支出时，必须纳入其他因素，例如特定国家的毒品政策以及关于酒精消费的社会规范。
