Burden of Fire Injuries in Finland: Lost Productivity and Benefits

Background: The aim of this study was to assess the economic burden of fire-related injury from two perspectives: post-injury social security compensations and also productivity losses due to the lost productive time from a societal perspective induced by the injury. Design and methods: A cohort of 1503 inpatients who sustained fire-related injury during the period 2001-2005 was retrospectively followed up for 5-10 years until the end of 2010, using linkages between several administrative registers. The study process was started in 2015 and finalized on March 2016. Results: Annual productivity loss was on average EUR 5.72 million, giving a total for the five-year study period of EUR 28.6 million, with a mean value of EUR 19,070 per person. Mean/median disability time for those who received benefits was 572/63 days, ranging from 3 days to 36.5 years. Total average cost of benefits to the injured annually during the study period was EUR 1.03 million. This equates to EUR 3430 per patient for the whole cohort or EUR 14,860 for those who received benefits. Conclusions: The burden of fire-related injuries in terms of payment transfers and lost productivity due to periods of disability as indirect costs is high; in a population of 5.4 million, the annual loss exceeded EUR 5.7 million. The results could be used in planning preventive measures and therefore yield savings.