Researchers analyzed 11,082 NIH grants and cooperative agreements for prevention research during fiscal years 2012-17. They compared the data to leading risk factors and causes of death and disability using 2017 CDC data and 2016 Global Burden of Diseases data.
The study revealed about a quarter of prevention research measured a leading cause of death as an outcome or exposure. Leading risk factors for death were measured 34 percent of the time, despite being tied to 57.3 percent of mortality. Although leading risk factors are associated with 42.1 percent of disability-adjusted life-years lost, only 31.4 percent of research measured them for disability-adjusted life-years lost. Not even a quarter of projects included a randomized clinical trial (24.6 percent), while even fewer involved more than one leading cause of death (3.3 percent) or risk factor (8.8 percent).
Leading risk factors and causes of death are underrepresented in NIH prevention research, the study authors concluded. They recommend more research focused on developing and testing interventions that address these risk factors and causes.
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