Assessing the Financial Burden: A Comprehensive Study of Cancer-related premature mortality and its effects on India’s Economic Productivity

KOUSHIK ROY PRAMANIK, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Dr. Murali Dhar, International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai

We aimed to estimate the value of productivity lost in 2022 due to cancer-related premature mortality in India. Using the human capital approach, we employed an incidence-based framework. We used annual adult cancer deaths from GLOBOCAN to estimate the years of productive life lost between cancer death and pensionable age in India, valued using ILO and World Bank data for wages and workforce statistics. Sensitivity analyses examined various methodological assumptions. The total cost of lost productivity due to premature cancer mortality in India in 2022 was $12.2 billion, representing 0•36% of its gross domestic product. Proportional to the country’s population size, India had 8.7 million YPLL (Years of Productive Life Lost), with $20,238 per cancer death. In India, total costs and cost per death among females (total $3.1 billion, $10,500 per death) were less than half of those of males (total $9.1 billion; $29,512 per death). In India, increasing female employment participation by 1% annually led to increased productivity losses and enhanced equity between male and female productivity losses. India's public health and economic performance might be significantly improved by concentrating on tobacco control, vaccine campaigns, and cancer screening, along with the availability of adequate treatment.

Keywords: Economic Demography, Health and Morbidity, Mortality and Longevity

See paper.