Despite aging baby boomers, NIH devotes only 11% to elderly studies

From The NY Times:

The health needs of tens of millions of aging baby boomers threaten to overwhelm the nation’s hospitals and caregivers within a decade or two, but the geriatric tidal wave does not appear to have been fully recognized at the National Institutes of Health.

The N.I.H., the nation’s main medical research center, is devoting only about 11 percent of its $31 billion budget to studies directly involving health concerns of the elderly. Less than one-third of the $3.46 billion in aging research reported this fiscal year is channeled through the National Institute on Aging, nominally the main center for geriatric research.

Most of the funds, including some involving Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s and osteoporosis, came through other N.I.H. institutes.

Aging is just one of a half dozen “compelling” opportunities for important scientific advances, said Dr. Francis S. Collins, director of the national institutes. “Aging is very much on our radar screen.” he said. “So, of course, is diabetes, so is cancer, so is mental illness, so is research on children, autism.”

Although there has been moderate growth in spending at all 27 N.I.H. research centers, the growth is slower at the National Institute on Aging. President Obama has proposed adding $1 billion, or 3.2 percent, to the N.I.H. in the 2011 fiscal year; the aging institute’s share would rise 2.9 percent.

Funds are already “a little more constrained than last year,” said Dr. Marie A. Bernard, deputy director of the aging institute. The squeeze shows up in the number of projects financed after having been approved by scientific reviewers.

Last year, 17.5 percent of aging institute grants were approved, compared with 20 percent approved for N.I.H. as a whole, she said. Aging research approvals are expected to drop even more, to 13 to 14 percent, when the 2010 numbers are announced, said Nancy E. Lundebjerg, chief operating officer of the American Geriatrics Society, an advocacy group.

Dr. Collins said “it would be unfortunate for advocates for aging research to make the case that aging should take away funds from those studying heart disease or diabetes,” which are relevant to aging. “What we need is a rising tide to lift all the boats,” he said.

Twenty-one Senate Democrats, led by Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, have asked the Senate Appropriations Committee to raise the N.I.H. 2011 budget 11.9 percent, to $35 billion.