health expenditure is directly related to the chances of surviving cancer. The more a government spends on health, lower mortality from this disease. The association between spending and health outcomes is most evident in the case of breast cancer, according to a study published in the scientific journal morning Annals of Oncology. The work has been presented at the European Congress of Cancer held these days in Amsterdam.
The authors used data from the World Health Organization (WHO) cancer incidence and mortality, and examined its association with health spending per person in 27 EU countries (all but Croatia, the last built). The result was a strong inverse correlation between health expenditure and cancer survival after diagnosis: more spending, mortality is lower. Although research does not analyze the causes of this association, the authors suggest that it may be due to increased spending allows earlier diagnosis and more effective treatments and accessible.
The researchers found that in countries that spend about $ 3,500 (2,588 euros) a year per person on health, mortality for all cancers reached 45% of patients diagnosed. If you increase spending $ 500 (369 euros), mortality was reduced by 5% to 40%. “Mortality decreases the more you invest in health, even as output increases, marginal gains in reducing mortality,” said El Pais the study’s lead author, Philip Ades, Jules Bordet Institute oncologist and professor of the Free University of Brussels.
Scientists fear that increased mortality involving cuts
The importance of health spending increases in the case of breast cancer, as researchers imagined that they decided to choose this type of tumor because of the importance of screening programs and the effectiveness of existing treatments. The paper compares Western and Eastern Europe. “Although breast cancer mortality is similar in all European countries, to estimate the proportion of deaths diagnosed cases we find that a smaller fraction of patients died in the countries of Western Europe,” he told Ades.
work has generated particular interest among the Spanish press present at the conference, which comes COUNTRY invited by Boehringer Ingelheim. Given the results of the same, “it is likely that the austerity policies cause an increase in cancer mortality,” said Ades. The data used by the authors are from 2008 and do not analyze trends, so it is not possible to measure the effect the crisis has had cuts. Spain held that year ranked 13th in spending levels and was the third to last among the countries of Western Europe, just behind Greece and Portugal. And that’s before health spending should fall first time in 2010 (5%) and do it again in 2011 (and beyond) due to cuts, according to a report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ( OECD).
World Bank indicator used by the authors includes the sum of public spending and private spending, but only the former is considered relevant since the latter is not significant in most European countries. Spain spent $ 3,125 (2,300 euros) in 2008, a figure similar to the one usually handles the OECD, although the statistical office of the European Union (Eurostat) greatly reduces the figure to 1,492 euros per person. Ades was unable to explain these differences. “What matters is the relationship between spending and mortality,” said the researcher. “Unless spending more deaths after diagnosis,” he concluded.
The study does not take into consideration conditions such as genetic, lifestyle, environmental exposures or infections, and other factors that influence cancer incidence. In addition, the increased incidence of disease in wealthier countries may also be associated with increased early detection. The authors re-analyzed new data in 2014.
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