Responses by breast and prostate cancer patients to out-of-pocket costs in Newfoundland and Labrador

Current Oncology

S. Young²  E. Housser¹  J. LeMessurier²  R. West²  J. Hawboldt²  M. Mathews² 

[1] Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Health Information;Memorial University

关键词: Out-of-pocket costs;    financial barriers;    patient responses;   

DOI  :  

学科分类：肿瘤学

来源: Multimed, Inc.

【 摘 要 】

Purpose Cancer patients face substantial care-related outof- pocket (oop) costs that may influence treatment decisions, attitudes, and use of drug- or appointmentrelated cost-saving strategies. We examined the relationship between oop costs and care-related responses by patients. Methods We surveyed 170 prostate and 131 breast cancer patients presenting at clinics or support groups, or listed on the cancer registry in Newfoundland and Labrador. Results In the 3-month period before the survey, 18.8% of prostate and 25.2% of breast cancer patients had oop costs greater than $500. Those oop costs consumed more than 7.5% of quarterly household income for 15.9% of prostate and 19.1% of breast cancer patients. Few patients (8.8% prostate, 15.3% breast) ever adopted any drug- or appointment-related cost-saving strategy. Few patients (7.2% prostate, 9.6% breast) said oop costs influenced treatment decisions, told their  physicians about their oop costs (27.0% prostate, 21.1% breast), or were aware of available financial assistance programs (27.3% prostate, 36.9% breast). Compared with patients having low or moderate oop costs (22.9% prostate, 16.7% breast, and 25.7% prostate, 58.3% breast respectively), a larger proportion of prostate (56.0%) and breast (58.3%) cancer patients with high oop costs said that those costs created stress. Among prostate cancer patients, a larger proportion of those having high oop costs (compared with low or moderate costs) used drug-related (22.2% vs. 3.3% and 9.6% respectively) and appointment-related (11.1% vs. 1.1% and 3.8% respectively) cost-saving strategies, said oop costs created an unusual amount of stress (48.0% vs. 18.4% and 10.4%), and had difficulty paying those costs (29.2% vs. 6.2% and 10.4%). Conclusions For a small group of breast and prostate cancer patients, oop costs are high, but rarely lead to the use of care-related cost-saving strategies or influence care decisions.

【 授权许可】

Unknown