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The Costs of Keeping Cool for Australians with Multiple Sclerosis
Author(s) -
Verikios George,
Summers Michael P.,
Simmons Rex D.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
australian economic review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.308
H-Index - 29
eISSN - 1467-8462
pISSN - 0004-9018
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8462.2013.00714.x
Subject(s) - disadvantage , multiple sclerosis , demographic economics , medical expenses , environmental health , air conditioning , business , economics , medicine , computer science , engineering , medical emergency , psychiatry , mechanical engineering , artificial intelligence
Heat intolerance is a significant medical problem affecting people with multiple sclerosis (MS). For people with MS, the costs of running their air conditioners are an additional disease‐related expense that must be met on top of other out‐of‐pocket disease‐related expenses. Using the results of the 2008 Keeping Cool Survey, we estimate the relative economic disadvantage faced by MS households in trying to keep cool. We find that MS households spend around four times more on keeping cool than average Australian households. Sensitivity analysis indicates that our results are robust with respect to all key inputs and parameters.