Abstract
BackgroundIn this study, we aimed to assess health research funding allocation in South Korea by analysing the relationship between government funding and disease burden in South Korea, specifically focusing on cancers.MethodsThe relationship between research funding and the cancer burden, measured in disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), was analysed using a linear regression method over a 10-year interval. Funding information on 25 types of cancer was obtained from the National Science and Technology Information Service portal in South Korea. Measures of cancer burden were obtained from Global Burden of Disease studies. The funding predictions were derived from regression analysis and compared with actual funding allocations. In addition, we evaluated how the funding distribution reflected long-term changes in the burden and the burden specific to South Korea compared with global values.ResultsKorean funding in four periods, 2005–2007, 2008–2010, 2011–2013 and 2015–2017, were associated with the cancer burden in 2003, 2006, 2009 and 2013, respectively. For DALYs, the correlation coefficients were 0.79 and 0.82 in 2003 and 2013, respectively, which were higher than the values from other countries. However, the changes in DALYs (1990–2006) were not associated with the funding changes (from 2005 to 2007 to 2015–2017). In addition, the value differences between Korean and global DALYs were not associated with Korean government research funding.ConclusionsAlthough research funding was associated with the cancer burden in South Korea during the last decade, the distribution of research funds did not appropriately reflect the changes in burden nor the differences between the South Korean and global burden levels. The policy-makers involved in health research budgeting should consider not only the absolute burden values for singular years but also the long-term changes in burden and the country-specific burden when they prioritise public research projects.
Highlights
The funding criteria for national research projects have been an issue of political importance in a variety of countries [1,2,3,4,5]
The total research budget of South Korea devoted to cancer during 2005–2017 was approximately 1.68 billion United States Dollars (USD)
In our analysis of 25 types of cancer, total funding amounts ranged from 0.3 million USD for other pharynx cancer to 508 million USD for breast cancer (Table 1)
Summary
The funding criteria for national research projects have been an issue of political importance in a variety of countries [1,2,3,4,5]. In the field of health, governmental research should focus more on public goals, such as resolving health challenges that broadly affect the population, because one of the aims of the government is to improve the health condition of the nation as a whole, unlike actors in the private sector (enterprises and corporations), which aim to pursue their own profit [7,8,9,10,11,12] In this regard, substantial efforts have been made to establish criteria for health research investment based on rational and objective evidence [13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21]. We aimed to assess health research funding allocation in South Korea by analysing the relationship between government funding and disease burden in South Korea, focusing on cancers
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