Researchers from the UK’s National Health Service have identified a possible unexpected benefit of the rise in contactless payments: fewer children are turning up at hospitals after swallowing coins.
In a paper entitled 'Coin-cidence? Have cashless payments reduced the incidence of upper aerodigestive foreign body insertion' the authors track the rise of contactless against a fall in foreign body (FB) retrieval procedures involving the alimentary tract, respiratory tract and nasal cavity.
Looking at UK Hospital Episode Statistics from 2000 to 2022, they found that, following the fall in cash payments in 2012, there was a "statistically significant" decline in the number of procedures for removal of FBs performed.
The frequency of alimentary tract FB removal procedures decreased by 27.78 procedures per year (p < 0.001). Similarly, respiratory FB removal procedure decreased by 4.83 per year (p = 0.009) and nasal cavity FB removal procedures decreased by 52.82 per year (p < 0.001).
Coins are implicated in more than 75% of swallowed FBs in children under the age of six, say he researchers. A review of endoscopies for FBs shows that 66% of the ingested FBs were coins. They are frequently ingested because of their thin, round shape and easy accessibility.
The fall could help save the NHS significant sums, with a recent study showing that the cost of FB removal is approximately £2,880,148 a year.
The study notes that the trends are likely multifactorial, with changes in public health policies, education programmes targeting children and parents, and shifts in population behaviours unrelated to payment methods all possibly playing a part.
Nevertheless, they conclude: "[O]ur data suggest an association between the introduction of contactless payments and a reduction in the number of FB retrieval procedures from the of upper aerodigestive tract."