Economic costs of violence
The Manual for estimating the economic costs of injuries due to interpersonal and self-directed violence is jointly published by WHO and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The manual fills a gap in the area of normative guidance on how to assess the economic impact of the two most prevalent forms of violence. Of the annual toll of 1.6 million deaths worldwide due to violence, 86% are due to interpersonal and self-directed violence combined. For every death, there are 10-40 times as many injuries severe enough to warrant medical attention. These consequences produce massive direct and indirect costs, that can hinder economic development, increase socioeconomic inequality, and erode human and social capital. Yet, in most countries, systematic research into these economic impacts of violence is almost totally lacking. The manual reflects input from violence and injury costing experts from around the world. It provides simple, systematic guidance on how to measure: (1) direct medical costs arising from violence-related injuries and deaths, such as the costs of hospitalization, of outpatient visits and of transport to hospital; and (2) indirect costs, specifically productivity losses, arising because of violence-related injuries and deaths. The manual provides a framework for computing estimates of these costs, while taking into account the constraints, particularly data limitations, which may be confronted in low-resource settings. The manual aims to assist the largest number of countries possible in such an effort, and includes case studies from Brazil, Jamaica and Thailand to demonstrate how the guidance has been implemented in a range of settings with different levels of existing data.