Passive smoking and health care: Health perceptions myth vs. health care reality

Individuals exhibit systematic tendencies to overstate the risks of unlikel y lethal events. If the risks of passive smoking are overstated in this man ner, and if passive smoking is not harmful to adult health, then passive sm oking by adults should have a discernible effect on subjective evaluations of health status, but no corresponding effect on health. This idea is exami ned empirically below using data from the National Health Interview Surveys . The empirical results can be summarized as follows. Passive smoking is asso ciated with assessments of significantly poorer health. Poorer health asses sments are associated with significantly greater medical resource use. Howe ver, direct estimates of the effects of passive smoking on health care use indicate no statistical association whatsoever. These results are consisten t with a model whereby individuals systematically overestimate the effects of passive smoking on their health and where the short-term effects of pass ive smoking on adult health care costs are negligible.