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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Severe infections leading to hospitalizations during childhood are associated with lower school achievement in adolescence,reports a study in the July issue of The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal (PIDJ).
In the nationwide study of nearly 600,000 Danish children, higher numbers of hospitalizations for infections were associated with a reduced probability of completing ninth grade, as well as with lower test scores, according to the new research by Ole Köhler-Fosberg, MD, of Aarhus University Hospital and colleagues. An expert commentary discusses the role of vaccination in the relationship between investment in health and protecting and improving "human capital."
The study included nationwide data of 598,553 children born in Denmark between 1987 and 1997. The researchers looked at two measures of childhood infections: hospital admission for infections, an indicator of moderate to severe infections; and prescriptions for anti-infective drugs (such as antibiotics) in primary care, reflecting less-severe infections.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday July 18 2018, @02:31PM
>Doing so for anything less is astonishingly wasteful of medical resources.
How, exactly? Unless there's a large-scale crisis, there's usually going to be a lot of beds sitting empty in a well-equipped hospital. Putting a kid in one of those has a very low incremental cost - a little more work for the cleaning crew mostly. Similarly, having a nurse swing by for a couple minutes every hour to make sure there's no problems developing unrecognized by completely untrained patients and family doesn't cost much - looks like an hour of nurse's pay only costs around $30-$60 in Denmark. You might want to have a doctor come by for a couple quick evaluations during the course of the day as well, but really you're just looking for observation by someone with medical experience, and to have experts immediately at hand if there's a problem.
So, maybe $100-$200 a day in actual costs if you're pessimistic, assuming medical intervention isn't needed, for patients who are already recognized to have a dangerous infection.