Development of a Web-based calculator to estimate DALY and Productivity Losses due to COVID-19

Abstract

Objectives: Ever since the emergence of COVID-19, health and the economy worldwide have witnessed a severe disruption, with infection spreading rapidly, covering 231 countries as of May 07, 2023. Policymakers and Governments have been working to offer tailored interventions to the most vulnerable cohorts. Given this background, the paper involves description towards developing a Web-based Calculator to compute various estimates that quantify health economic impacts as these are much helpful than just mortality and simpler measures. Methods: The computations required to determine the estimates and the variables involved have been picked based on the observations and literature. The manuscript presents the significance of the estimates, a description of the Calculator developed, followed by validation. The values estimated using Calculator were validated against those computed using formulas for the state of West Bengal, India. Results: The results indicated that the Calculator is able to produce near accurate results with the highest error percentage witnessed for Cost of Productivity Lost due to Absenteeism as 0.946%. Error percentages for Disability-Adjusted Life Years was 0.175, and less than 0.1 for all other estimates. Conclusions: This could prove to be an effective tool for the policymakers and practitioners to identify the long-term impacts and the most vulnerable cohorts and devise targeted interventions. Additionally, these tools will allow the policymakers and governments to save time in compute these estimates in the future.

Keywords

• Disability-adjusted life years
• Cost of productivity lost
• Years of potential productive life lost
• Value of statistical life