The Economic Burden of Cancers Attributable to Infection in the Republic of Korea: A Prevalence-Based Study

Abstract

Infection is a major cause of cancers. We estimated the economic burden of cancers attributable to infection in 2014 in Korea, where cancer causing infection is prevalent, but the economic burden of it has never been examined. Cancer patients were defined as those having made medical claims as recorded by the National Health Insurance Service, which is a mandatory insurance for all citizen. We multiplied the costs by the population-attributable fraction for each type of cancer. The study included direct and indirect costs, where direct costs comprised direct medical and non-medical costs of inpatients and outpatients, while indirect costs were estimated by identifying future income loss due to premature death, productivity loss during hospitalization/outpatient visits, and job loss. In 2014, there were 100,054 infection-related cancer patients, accounting for 10.7% of all Korean cancer cases for that year. Direct costs of cancers associated with infection stood at nearly USD 676.9 million, while indirect costs were much higher at USD 2.57 billion. The average expenditure of a typical patient was USD 32,435. Economic burden of cancers attributable to infection is substantial in Korea, accounting for 0.23% of the national gross domestic product and 1.36% of national healthcare expenditure in 2014.

Income Disparities in Cancer Screening: A Cross-Sectional Study of the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2013–2019

“…The number of incident cancer cases was estimated at 229,180, of which 27.8% of cancer-related deaths occurred between 2011 and 2016 ( 3 ). The cancer-related economic burden was reported exhibited an average 8.9% annual growth rate in 2010 ( 4 ), accounting for 0.23% of the national gross domestic product and 1.36% of national healthcare expenditure in 2014 ( 5 ) and, in terms of the total cost, $1 was equal to 1,131.52 won in 2015, according to Statistics Korea ( 6 ).…”

Tissue Pathogens and Cancers: A Review of Commonly Seen Manifestations in Histo- and Cytopathology

“…Furthermore, there is significant economic burden associated with infection-attributable cancers. A Korean study reported direct costs of these cancers amounting to USD 676.9 million and indirect costs amounting to USD 2.57 billion in 2014, which accounted for 0.23% of the gross domestic product and 1.36% of the healthcare expenditure [9].…”