Study: Financial burden affects quality of life of cancer survivors

IN DEPTH REVIEW OF RESEARCH

Study background:

Multiple research groups have looked at how much patients spend related to cancer. One group observed that lost income and out-of-pocket care expenses cost breast cancer patients an average of $1,455 per month. Another group found that the average cancer patient had estimated out–of-pocket costs of about  $4,727 per year. Previous studies have noted that 12% of all breast cancer patients are in debt four years after their diagnosis.

What remains unknown is how these financial problems affect the physical and mental health of cancer survivors. In March of 2016, Hrishikesh Kale and Norman Carroll from the Virginia Commonwealth University studied the quality of life of cancer survivors who were experiencing financial burden.

Researchers of this study wanted to know:

1. the scope of cancer-related financial burden.
2. whether there are predicators of who will experience financial burden due to cancer.
3. how financial burden affects the mental and physical health of cancer survivors.  

Population(s) looked at in the study:

The study population represented 19.6 million cancer survivors through the 2011 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). The majority of this population was non-Hispanic white females who were diagnosed with cancer before age 65. This population included all cancers, but notably, 17% had breast cancer.

Study findings: 

1. About 29% of 19.6 million cancer survivors report financial burden indicated by one or more of the following:
   • outstanding loans or declared bankruptcy
   • worry about paying large medical bills
   • inability to cover cost of medical care visits
   • other financial sacrifices
2. Cancer survivors who are most likely to experience cancer-related financial burden were:
   • diagnosed before age 65.
   • female.
   • had difficulty obtaining, or were without access to health insurance.
   • diagnosed with liver, lung, esophageal, or pancreatic cancers.
   • members of a racial/ethnic minority group.
3. Cancer survivors who had financial burden were more likely to:
   • be depressed, as measured by a patient health questionnaire.
   • worry about cancer recurrence (69% of survivors with financial burden were worried, compared to 35% of cancer survivors without financial burden).  
   • score lower on measures of physical quality of life.

Limitations:

The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey data does not include information about the cancer stage, severity, or treatment used, so researchers could not control for these factors. Nor could they control for psychiatric illness that preceded a cancer diagnosis. This is a limitation, because if cancer survivors had a history of psychiatric illness before their diagnoses, the patient depression found in this study cannot be attributed to financial burden. Finally, because patients self-reported information through surveys, some information may have been incorrect (for example, exaggerations, omission of critical information, or simply forgetting details).

Conclusions:

This study suggests that cancer-related financial burden negatively affects the quality of survivors’ mental and physical health. Cancer survivors who experience financial burden should ask for a referral to a social worker or patient navigator. These health care workers can connect patients to resources that provide financial assistance, access to low-cost medications, assistance with insurance appeals and support in navigating the health care and health insurance systems.

Posted 5/17/16

Share your thoughts on this XRAYS article by taking this brief survey.