TY - JOUR
T1 - National institutes of health funding for behavioral interventions to prevent chronic diseases
AU - Calitz, Chris
AU - Pollack, Keshia M.
AU - Millard, Chris
AU - Yach, Derek
N1 - Funding Information:
The NIH is the world’s largest funder of biomedical research and receives approximately 90% ($30 billion) of the $34 billion annual U.S. federal health research and development budget. 28,29 The scale, structure, and priorities of NIH funding have a significant impact on research universities with medical schools and the career development of research scientists. More than 80% of the NIH budget funds extramural grants, which support around 350,000 scientists at 2,500 universities across the U.S. and around the world. 29–31 The NIH estimates that it spent roughly $6 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2012—almost 20% of total annual expenditures—on prevention research, including infectious disease prevention. 32 Figure 1 summarizes data from Appendix Table 1 and shows the distribution of all grants coded as Prevention by the NIH between FY2010 and FY2012. Based on average award value, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is the largest funder of prevention research (24.6%) followed by the National Cancer Institute (18.9%); both of these Institutes spend more than $1 billion annually on prevention research ( Appendix Table 1 ).
Funding Information:
Other agencies besides the NIH are involved in prevention science, cost effectiveness, and dissemination and implementation research. For example, the Affordable Care Act mandated the creation of Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), which is expected to receive $3.5 billion through September 2019. PCORI could be an important funding source to help bolster the evidence base for cost-effective preventive interventions. 46 The sheer scale of NIH funding, however, results in impacts that go well beyond knowledge creation. NIH funding of indirect costs supports the general facility and administrative expenses of grantees, which can approach 70%, and approximately $730 million supported training and career development grants in FY2012. 47,48 Encouraging skilled researchers to stay in prevention research requires robust funding that will create sustainable career paths, especially for junior scholars. The scale and scope of NIH funding also affects the nature of public–private partnerships. NIH funding for biomedicine is the foundation of the U.S. private medical innovation sector, which generated an estimated $84 billion in wages and $90 billion in exported goods and services in FY2011. 31
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
PY - 2015/4/1
Y1 - 2015/4/1
N2 - Chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) cause the majority of premature deaths, disability, and healthcare expenditures in the U.S. Six largely modifiable risk behaviors and factors (tobacco use, poor nutrition, physical inactivity, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, and poor mental health) account for more than 50% of premature mortality and considerably more morbidity and disability. The IOM proposed that population burden of disease and preventability should be major determinants of the amount of research funding provided by the U.S. NIH. Data on NIH prevention funding between fiscal years 2010 and 2012 for human behavioral interventions that target the modifiable risk factors of NCDs were analyzed during 2013-2014. The NIH prevention portfolio comprises approximately 37% human behavioral studies and 63% basic biomedical, genetic, and animal studies. Approximately 65% of studies were secondary prevention versus 23% for primary prevention, and 71% of studies intervened at the individual and family levels. Diet and exercise were the most-studied risk factors (41%), and few studies conducted economic analyses (12%). NIH spends an estimated $2.2-$2.6 billion annually (7%-9% of the total of $30 billion) on human behavioral interventions to prevent NCDs. Although NIH prevention funding broadly aligns with the current burden of disease, overall funding remains low compared to funding for treatment, which suggests funding misalignment with the preventability of chronic diseases.
AB - Chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) cause the majority of premature deaths, disability, and healthcare expenditures in the U.S. Six largely modifiable risk behaviors and factors (tobacco use, poor nutrition, physical inactivity, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, and poor mental health) account for more than 50% of premature mortality and considerably more morbidity and disability. The IOM proposed that population burden of disease and preventability should be major determinants of the amount of research funding provided by the U.S. NIH. Data on NIH prevention funding between fiscal years 2010 and 2012 for human behavioral interventions that target the modifiable risk factors of NCDs were analyzed during 2013-2014. The NIH prevention portfolio comprises approximately 37% human behavioral studies and 63% basic biomedical, genetic, and animal studies. Approximately 65% of studies were secondary prevention versus 23% for primary prevention, and 71% of studies intervened at the individual and family levels. Diet and exercise were the most-studied risk factors (41%), and few studies conducted economic analyses (12%). NIH spends an estimated $2.2-$2.6 billion annually (7%-9% of the total of $30 billion) on human behavioral interventions to prevent NCDs. Although NIH prevention funding broadly aligns with the current burden of disease, overall funding remains low compared to funding for treatment, which suggests funding misalignment with the preventability of chronic diseases.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.amepre.2014.10.015
DO - 10.1016/j.amepre.2014.10.015
M3 - Article
C2 - 25576496
AN - SCOPUS:84925363782
SN - 0749-3797
VL - 48
SP - 462
EP - 471
JO - American journal of preventive medicine
JF - American journal of preventive medicine
IS - 4
ER -