receiving treatment
Photo by Rhoda Baer
An analysis of nearly 20 million cancer survivors showed that almost 29% had financial burdens as a result of their cancer diagnosis and/or treatment.
In other words, they borrowed money, declared bankruptcy, worried about paying large medical bills, were unable to cover the cost of medical visits, or made other financial sacrifices.
Furthermore, such hardships could have lasting effects on a cancer survivor’s quality of life (QOL).
Hrishikesh Kale and Norman Carroll, PhD, both of Virginia Commonwealth University School of Pharmacy in Richmond, reported these findings in Cancer.
The pair analyzed 2011 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey data on 19.6 million cancer survivors, assessing financial burden and QOL.
Subjects were considered to have financial burden if they reported 1 of the following problems: borrowed money/declared bankruptcy, worried about paying large medical bills, unable to cover the cost of medical care visits, or other financial sacrifices.
Nearly 29% of the cancer survivors reported at least 1 financial problem resulting from cancer diagnosis, treatment, or lasting effects of that treatment.
Of all the cancer survivors in the analysis, 20.9% worried about paying large medical bills, 11.5% were unable to cover the cost of medical care visits, 7.6% reported borrowing money or going into debt, 1.4% declared bankruptcy, and 8.6% reported other financial sacrifices.
Cancer survivors who faced such financial difficulties had lower physical and mental health-related QOL, higher risk for depressed mood and psychological distress, and were more likely to worry about cancer recurrence, when compared with cancer survivors who did not face financial problems.
In addition, as the number of financial problems reported by cancer survivors increased, their QOL continued to decrease. And their risk for depressed mood, psychological distress, and worries about cancer recurrence continued to increase.
“Our results suggest that policies and practices that minimize cancer patients’ out-of-pocket costs can improve survivors’ health-related quality of life and psychological health,” Dr Carroll said.
“Reducing the financial burden of cancer care requires integrated efforts, and the study findings are useful for survivorship care programs, oncologists, payers, pharmaceutical companies, and patients and their family members.”
