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Quantifying Health Gains and Health System Expenditure Impacts of Eliminating Indoor Mould in Homes

Li, Y.; Raj Mishra, S.; Wilson, T.; Bentley, R.; Blakely, T.

2025-04-14 public and global health
10.1101/2025.04.13.25325769 medRxiv
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ObjectiveTo quantify the prospective health benefits, cost savings, and income gains of eradicating indoor mould in Australia. MethodsWe used a proportional multistate lifetable model to estimate the impact of removing moderate (16.5%) and severe (11.0%) indoor mould exposure, incorporating its causal links to asthma incidence, chronic respiratory disease severity, and lower respiratory tract infections. Outcomes included health-adjusted life years (HALYs), healthcare costs, and income effects, discounted at 3% annually. ResultsMould eradication yielded 4,190 HALYs gained (95% UI: 1,920 to 7,350) per million people alive in 2021 over 20 years (or about 1.5 healthy days per person). The most socioeconomically deprived quintile experienced 1.66 times the benefit of the least deprived. Health expenditure decreased by US$78.0 million per million people (95% UI: 34.6 to 138), while income increased by US$116 million (95% UI: 48.7 to 219), representing 0.5%-2.1% of annual health spending and 0.08%-0.36% of GDP. ConclusionsMould eradication offers health gains comparable to other leading public health interventions and triple those from eliminating cold housing. Further research should reduce uncertainty in risk estimates and evaluate cost-effective housing solutions.

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