Early diagnosis of chronic conditions and lifestyle modification

This is derived from a chapter of my PhD dissertation, Essays on the Economics of Health.

This paper estimates the potential impact of early diagnosis programmes on health behaviours, labour supply and savings of households. In order to deal with potential selection bias due to screening, I employ a feature of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) that motivates a regression discontinuity design based on the blood pressure of the respondents. There is evidence of an increase in the use of medication as a treatment for the condition, which seems to be related to an increase in smoking intensity and body mass index but /with a reduction in alcohol-intake frequency.

This project is the first part of my PhD dissertation under the supervision of professors Marcos Vera-Hernandez and Aureo de Paula.

Below: Probability to be under blood pressure lowering medication apx. two years after being surveyed (conditional on not being diagnosed with high blood pressure at the moment of measurement)