Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Oct 18;16(1):804.
doi: 10.1186/s12885-016-2854-4.

Projecting productivity losses for cancer-related mortality 2011 - 2030

Alison Pearce  1   2 , Cathy Bradley  3 , Paul Hanly  4 , Ciaran O'Neill  5 , Audrey Alforque Thomas  5 , Michal Molcho  5 , Linda Sharp  6
Affiliations

Projecting productivity losses for cancer-related mortality 2011 - 2030

Alison Pearce et al. BMC Cancer. .

Abstract

Background: When individuals stop working due to cancer this represents a loss to society - the loss of productivity. The aim of this analysis was to estimate productivity losses associated with premature mortality from all adult cancers and from the 20 highest mortality adult cancers in Ireland in 2011, and project these losses until 2030.

Methods: An incidence-based method was used to estimate the cost of cancer deaths between 2011 and 2030 using the Human Capital Approach. National data were used for cancer, population and economic inputs. Both paid work and unpaid household activities were included. Sensitivity analyses estimated the impact of assumptions around future cancer mortality rates, retirement ages, value of unpaid work, wage growth and discounting.

Results: The 233,000 projected deaths from all invasive cancers in Ireland between 2011 and 2030 will result in lost productivity valued at €73 billion; €13 billion in paid work and €60 billion in household activities. These losses represent approximately 1.4 % of Ireland's GDP annually. The most costly cancers are lung (€14.4 billion), colorectal and breast cancer (€8.3 billion each). However, when viewed as productivity losses per cancer death, testis (€364,000 per death), cervix (€155,000 per death) and brain cancer (€136,000 per death) are most costly because they affect working age individuals. An annual 1 % reduction in mortality reduces productivity losses due to all invasive cancers by €8.5 billion over 20 years.

Conclusions: Society incurs substantial losses in productivity as a result of cancer-related mortality, particularly when household production is included. These estimates provide valuable evidence to inform resource allocation decisions in cancer prevention and control.

Keywords: Cost of illness; Employment; Health care economics; Household activities; Human Capital Approach; Labor force; Neoplasms; Premature Mortality; Productivity; Work.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Projected value of lost paid production by gender
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Projected value of lost household production by gender
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Projected value of lost paid production by age group
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Projected value of lost household production by age group
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Sensitivity Analyses – All invasive cancer results for paid and household production as a percentage of the base case
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Ferlay J, Soerjomataram I, Ervik M, Dikshit R, Eser S, Mathers C, Rebelo M, Parkin DM, Forman D, Bray F. GLOBOCAN 2012 v1.0, Cancer Incidence and Mortality Worldwide: IARC CancerBase No. 11 [Internet] Lyon: International Agency for Research on Cancer; 2013.
    1. Macmillan Cancer Support. Making the shift: Providing specialist work support to people with cancer. Macmillan Cancer Support [Internet]; 2013 Mar. Available from: http://www.macmillan.org.uk/documents/getinvolved/campaigns/workingthrou....
    1. Hanly PA, Sharp L. The cost of lost productivity due to premature cancer-related mortality: an economic measure of the cancer burden. BMC Cancer. 2014;14:224. doi: 10.1186/1471-2407-14-224. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. National Cancer Registry Ireland. Cancer in Ireland 1994–2012: Annual Report of the National Cancer Registry [Internet]. 2014 [cited 2014 Dec 18]. Available from: http://www.ncri.ie/sites/ncri/files/pubs/NCRReport_19942012_Dec2014.pdf. Accessed 18 Dec 2014.
    1. Bradley CJ, Yabroff KR, Dahman B, Feuer EJ, Mariotto A, Brown ML. Productivity costs of cancer mortality in the United States: 2000–2020. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2008;100:1763–1770. doi: 10.1093/jnci/djn384. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources