Briefing: Is reproductive health and childbirth research over-funded? How pregnancy loss is ignored by disability-adjusted life years
In the latest analysis of public and charity funded health-relevant research, the UK Clinical Research Collaboration (UKCRC) concluded that there is relatively poor matching of the UK’s burden of disease and research spending. The report flagged reproductive health and childbirth as one of the areas of health which received a higher proportion of research funding than the corresponding burden of disease (measured by disability-adjusted life years).
In this briefing, we explore the disability-adjusted life years metric in more detail, question its relevance for reproductive health and childbirth and suggest what changes are needed to better reflect the impact of pregnancy loss.
