Tobacco-related research funding at the national cancer institute: Portfolio analysis, fiscal year 2003

A variety of methods is used to classify research conducted or funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). We undertook this analysis to delineate research funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) that specifically addresses a tobacco-related research question. Intramural projects, extramural grants, and contracts were coded according to eight categories based on information in the abstracts. One category, "research area,'' classified projects by the primary study outcome. A total of 318 projects met our inclusion criterion of addressing a tobacco-related research question. As a result, our estimate of about US$107 million in tobacco research during the 2003 fiscal year is different from what is officially reported by NCI. The greatest proportion of tobacco research dollars was devoted to policy research (20%, n=47) and research on the determinants of tobacco use (19%, n=36). The greatest number of studies focused on investigating the consequences of tobacco use (32%, n=105). A substantial number of projects addressed a tobacco-related question specifically about women (n=45) or a racial/ethnic group (n=99) and used cigarettes as the primary tobacco product (n=277). These findings elucidate key areas for future tobacco control research and may help to determine future funding priorities at NCI and in the research community at large. Although tobacco causes nearly 30% of all cancer deaths, NCI spent 2.3% of its total fiscal year 2003 budget on tobacco-related research funding.