UK funding for stroke and dementia research still too low, study says
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Version 0 of 1. Research funding into stroke and dementia in the UK is still too low despite recent significant rises in state support, a study says. While the gap between budgets for these two conditions and cancer and coronary heart disease (CHD) has narrowed in terms of government money, the proportion of funds from charities allocated to each of the four leading causes of death and disability has barely changed in recent years. Authors of the study in BMJ Open say the overall sums spent on researching stroke and dementia bear little relation to the conditions’ costs to health and social services, or their economic and personal impacts, despite the Conservative-led coalition’s increasing funding, raising dementia’s political profile and promising more for research in future. The study also suggests the high level of research funding by cancer charities compared with those for other diseases can be partly explained by the public’s preferences, and even a form of ageism – a view that dementia and stroke are inevitably linked with ageing. The authors recognise, too, the fact there are more than 200 types of cancer, affecting all major organs, may also be important in the choices individual donors to charities make. The researchers, from the health economics research centre at Oxford University, compared research spending in 2008 and in 2012, when the four conditions together accounted for 55% of all UK deaths and 5.5m disability adjusted life years (DALYS), a measurement of years of “healthy” life lost. The health and social care costs for dementia in 2012 came to £11.6bn, more than double the £5bn for cancer, while those for stroke were £2.9bn and CHD £2.5bn. The combined government and charitable research spending in 2012 was £856m, with charities contributing nearly £509m. Related: Dementia needs extra funding and greater understanding From the combined total, £546m (64%) was devoted to cancer, £165m (21%) to CHD, £85m (10%) to dementia and £58m (7%) to stroke. For every £10 in health and social care costs attributable to each disease, cancer received £1.09 in research funding, CHD 65p, stroke 20p and dementia 7p. Compared with 2008, however, the slice of government funds given to research cancer had gone down from 66% to 46% and for CHD remained the same at 21%. State aid for dementia research rose from 9% to 21% and for stroke from 4% to 12%. However, cancer accounted for 76% of charitable funding in both 2008 and 2012, CHD fell from 20% to 18%, dementia accounted for 3% in both years and stroke’s share rose from 1% to 3%. Alastair Gray, one of the study authors, said: “Despite the shift in funding priorities, research into the treatment and prevention of dementia and stroke remains underfunded when compared to the economic and personal impact these conditions have.” Doug Brown, director of research at the Alzheimer’s Society, said research into dementia was still neglected compared with other major conditions. “Investments in research into cancer and heart diseases have delivered treatment and even some cures and we need to see the same in dementia.” There had been “huge progress”, said Brown, “but until there is more funding, we are limited in how quickly we can make life-changing discoveries”. Nell Barrie, senior science information manager at Cancer Research UK, said: “More than 330,000 people are diagnosed with cancer in the UK each year. Thanks to research into life-saving treatment and cures, one in two people now survives for at least 10 years, compared with just one in four in the 1970s.” Far too many people still lost their lives to the disease, she said. “We don’t receive any government funding for our research so, to achieve this goal, it’s vital that the public continue to support the charity’s research which relies on their generosity.” |