Breast Cancer Epidemiology of the Working-Age Female Population Reveals Significant Implications for the South Korean Economy.
- Author:
Jeong Hyun PARK
1
;
Se Kyung LEE
;
Jeong Eon LEE
;
Seok Won KIM
;
Seok Jin NAM
;
Ji Yeon KIM
;
Jin Seok AHN
;
Won PARK
;
Jonghan YU
;
Yeon Hee PARK
Author Information
- Publication Type:Brief Communication
- Keywords: Breast neoplasms; Costs and cost analysis; Employment; Female; Quality of life
- MeSH: Breast Neoplasms*; Breast*; Costs and Cost Analysis; Diagnosis; Efficiency; Employment; Epidemiology*; Female*; Financial Management; Gross Domestic Product; Humans; Incidence; Mortality; Quality of Life
- From:Journal of Breast Cancer 2018;21(1):91-95
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
- 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.
