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

Thi Xuan Trinh Nguyen, Minji Han, Moran Ki, Young Ae Kim and Jin-Kyoung Oh
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Thi Xuan Trinh Nguyen: Department of Cancer Control and Population Health, National Cancer Center Graduate School of Cancer Science and Policy, 323 Ilsan-ro, Ilsandong-gu, Goyang-si 410-769, Korea
Minji Han: Department of Cancer Control and Population Health, National Cancer Center Graduate School of Cancer Science and Policy, 323 Ilsan-ro, Ilsandong-gu, Goyang-si 410-769, Korea
Moran Ki: Department of Cancer Control and Population Health, National Cancer Center Graduate School of Cancer Science and Policy, 323 Ilsan-ro, Ilsandong-gu, Goyang-si 410-769, Korea
Young Ae Kim: National Cancer Control Institute, National Cancer Center, 323 Ilsan-ro, Ilsandong-gu, Goyang-si 410-769, Korea
Jin-Kyoung Oh: Department of Cancer Control and Population Health, National Cancer Center Graduate School of Cancer Science and Policy, 323 Ilsan-ro, Ilsandong-gu, Goyang-si 410-769, Korea

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 20, 1-14

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.

Keywords: cancer; infection; economic burden; Korea (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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