J Breast Cancer.  2018 Mar;21(1):91-95. 10.4048/jbc.2018.21.1.91.

Breast Cancer Epidemiology of the Working-Age Female Population Reveals Significant Implications for the South Korean Economy

• Park JH
• Lee SK
• Lee JE
• Kim SW
• Nam SJ
• Kim JY
• Ahn JS
• Park W
• Yu J
• Park YH

• KMID: 2441873
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4048/jbc.2018.21.1.91

Abstract

In this study, we aimed to evaluate the economic loss due to the diagnosis of breast cancer within the female South Korean working-age population. A population-based cost analysis was performed for cancer-related diagnoses between 1999 and 2014, using respective public government funded databases. Among the five most common cancers, breast cancer mortality was strongly associated with the growth in gross domestic product between 1999 and 2014 (R=0.98). In the female population, breast cancer represented the greatest productivity loss among all cancers, which was a consequence of the peak in the incidence of breast cancer during mid-working age in the working-age population, in addition to being the most common and fastest growing cancer among South Korean women. Our study shows that breast cancer not only represents a significant disease burden for individual patients, but also contributes a real, nonnegligible loss in productivity in the South Korean economy.

Keyword

Breast neoplasms; Costs and cost analysis; Employment; Female; Quality of life

MeSH Terms

Breast Neoplasms*
Breast*
Costs and Cost Analysis
Diagnosis
Efficiency
Employment
Epidemiology*
Female*
Financial Management
Gross Domestic Product
Humans
Incidence
Mortality
Quality of Life

Figure

• 

  Figure 1 Relationship between gross domestic product (GDP) at each common cancer. (A) GDP loss due to breast cancer. (B) GDP loss due to all cancer. (C) GDP loss due to lung cancer. (D) GDP loss due to stomach cancer. (E) GDP loss due to colorectum cancer. (F) GDP loss due to liver cancer. GDP analysis for all cancers demonstrates no discernable relationship to mortality (R=−0.09). Of the five most common cancers, only breast cancer has a direct correlationship to GDP (R=0.98), which is a consequence of most breast cancer cases occurring within the working-age female population.KWR=Korean Won.

• 

  Figure 2 Economic loss according to cancer incidence and five common female cancers. (A) Economic loss due to cancer incidence. Between 1999 and 2014, the productivity loss due to all cancers within the working-age female population grew from 478 billion Korean Won (KRW) (0.1% of total gross domestic product [GDP]) to 2,710 billion KRW (0.2%). During the same period, the productivity loss due to breast cancer grew from 92 billion KRW (0.02% of total GDP) to 642 billion KRW (0.04%). (B) Productivity loss for the five most common cancers. Within the working-age female population, breast cancer was associated with the greatest increase in productivity with a compound annual growth rate of 13.8%.

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