Price elasticity of demand for ready-to-drink sugar-sweetened beverages in Brazil.

The taxation of sugar-sweetened beverages is a policy that has been adopted in many countries worldwide, including Latin American, to reduce sugar consumption. However, little is known about how taxation on these products may affect their demand. The present study aims to estimate the price elasticity of demand for sugar-sweetened beverages in Brazil. This study advances the literature by proposing a breakdown between ready-to-drink sugar-sweetened beverages and sugar-sweetened beverages that require some preparation before being consumed. With this disaggregation, it is possible to obtain more accurate elasticities for the group of products that will be effectively taxed. We estimated a Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QUAIDS) model using the Household Budget Survey 2017-2018 microdata. The results show that ready-to-drink beverages is more consumed but less sensitive to changes in price than prepared beverages. The price elasticity of demand for ready-to-drink and prepared sugar-sweetened beverages was -1.19 and -3.38. Additionally, we observe heterogeneity in these price elasticities across household incomes, with a more elastic demand among lower-income households for ready to drink beverages. The findings suggest that taxing ready-to-drink sweetened beverages could potentially reduce sugar consumption directly through a decrease in the consumption of sugary drinks and this effect could be reinforced by reducing the consumption of other sugar-rich products. Therefore, the taxation police should effective contribute to minimize health risks associated to the sugar consumption.

Direct healthcare costs of lip, oral cavity and oropharyngeal cancer in Brazil.

The efficiency of public policies includes the measurement of the health resources used and their associated costs. There is a lack of studies evaluating the economic impact of oral cancer (OC). This study aims to estimate the healthcare costs of OC in Brazil from 2008 to 2016. This is a partial economic evaluation using the gross costing top-down method, considering the direct healthcare costs related to outpatients, inpatients, intensive care units, and the number of procedures, from the perspective of the public health sector. The data were extracted from the Outpatient and Inpatient Information System of the National Health System, by diagnosis according to the 10th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases, according to sites of interest: C00 to C06, C09 and C10. The values were adjusted for annual accumulated inflation and expressed in 2018 I$ (1 I$ = R$2,044). Expenditure on OC healthcare in Brazil was I$495.6 million, which was composed of 50.8% (I$251.6 million) outpatient and 49.2% (I$244.0 million) inpatient healthcare. About 177,317 admissions and 6,224,236 outpatient procedures were registered. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy comprised the largest number of procedures (88.8%) and costs (94.9%). Most of the costs were spent on people over 50 years old (72.9%) and on males (75.6%). Direct healthcare costs in Brazil for OC are substantial. Outpatient procedures were responsible for the highest total cost; however, inpatient procedures had a higher cost per procedure. Men over 50 years old consumed most of the cost and procedures for OC. The oropharynx and tongue were the sites with the highest expenditure. Further studies are needed to investigate the cost per individual, as well as direct non-medical and indirect costs of OC.