Identifying Over-and Underfunded Diseases by Comparing National Institutes of Health Funding for Skin Disease Research With US Skin Disease Burden According to 2021 Global Burden of Disease Data: Cross-Sectional Analysis

Background: Understanding the burden of various skin diseases can help guide funding allocation for skin disease research. A 2015 cross-sectional study found a partial correlation between US skin disease burden according to the 2010 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study and National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding in 2012-2013. Objective: This study aims to identify trends, correlations, and disparities in US skin disease burden and NIH research funding allocation using the latest data from the GBD 2021 and NIH funding data from the fiscal years 2021-2022. Methods: A cross-sectional analysis was conducted to compare the disability-adjusted life years for 15 skin conditions from the GBD 2021 with NIH funding for these conditions in 2021-2022. Data were sourced from the GBD Results tool and the NIH RePORTER database. Results: NIH funding for skin disease research and US skin disease burden according to the GBD 2021 were partially correlated, with several outliers. Malignant skin melanoma and pruritus were relatively overfunded, while psoriasis and urticaria were relatively underfunded. Conclusions: Disease burden is just one of the many important factors that must be considered when allocating resources, including funding to encourage research efforts to improve patient outcomes and positively impact public health.