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Financial Toxicity and Out-of-Pocket Costs for Patients with Head and Neck Cancer

Aim: To quantify financial toxicity and out-of-pocket costs for patients with HNC in Australia and explore their relationship with health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Methods: A cross-sectional survey was administered to patients with HNC 1–3 years after radiotherapy at a regional hospital in Au...

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Autores principales: Smith, Justin, Yu, Justin, Gordon, Louisa G., Chilkuri, Madhavi
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10217128/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37232829
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/curroncol30050371
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author Smith, Justin
Yu, Justin
Gordon, Louisa G.
Chilkuri, Madhavi
author_facet Smith, Justin
Yu, Justin
Gordon, Louisa G.
Chilkuri, Madhavi
author_sort Smith, Justin
collection PubMed
description Aim: To quantify financial toxicity and out-of-pocket costs for patients with HNC in Australia and explore their relationship with health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Methods: A cross-sectional survey was administered to patients with HNC 1–3 years after radiotherapy at a regional hospital in Australia. The survey included questions on sociodemographics, out-of-pocket expenses, HRQoL, and the Financial Index of Toxicity (FIT) tool. The relationship between high financial toxicity scores (top quartile) and HRQoL was explored. Results: Of the 57 participants included in the study, 41 (72%) reported out-of-pocket expenses at a median of AUD 1796 (IQR AUD 2700) and a maximum of AUD 25,050. The median FIT score was 13.9 (IQR 19.5) and patients with high financial toxicity (n = 14) reported poorer HRQoL (76.5 vs. 114.5, p < 0.001). Patients who were not married had higher FIT scores (23.1 vs. 11.1, p = 0.01), as did those with lower education (19.3 vs. 11.1, p = 0.06). Participants with private health insurance had lower financial toxicity scores (8.3 vs. 17.6, p = 0.01). Medications (41%, median AUD 400), dietary supplements (41%, median AUD 600), travel (36%, median AUD 525), and dental (29%, AUD 388) were the most common out-of-pocket expenses. Participants living in rural locations (≥100 km from the hospital) had higher out-of-pocket expenses (AUD 2655 vs. AUD 730, p = 0.01). Conclusion: Financial toxicity is associated with poorer HRQoL for many patients with HNC following treatment. Further research is needed to investigate interventions aimed at reducing financial toxicity and how these can best be incorporated into routine clinical care.
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spelling pubmed-102171282023-05-27 Financial Toxicity and Out-of-Pocket Costs for Patients with Head and Neck Cancer Smith, Justin Yu, Justin Gordon, Louisa G. Chilkuri, Madhavi Curr Oncol Article Aim: To quantify financial toxicity and out-of-pocket costs for patients with HNC in Australia and explore their relationship with health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Methods: A cross-sectional survey was administered to patients with HNC 1–3 years after radiotherapy at a regional hospital in Australia. The survey included questions on sociodemographics, out-of-pocket expenses, HRQoL, and the Financial Index of Toxicity (FIT) tool. The relationship between high financial toxicity scores (top quartile) and HRQoL was explored. Results: Of the 57 participants included in the study, 41 (72%) reported out-of-pocket expenses at a median of AUD 1796 (IQR AUD 2700) and a maximum of AUD 25,050. The median FIT score was 13.9 (IQR 19.5) and patients with high financial toxicity (n = 14) reported poorer HRQoL (76.5 vs. 114.5, p < 0.001). Patients who were not married had higher FIT scores (23.1 vs. 11.1, p = 0.01), as did those with lower education (19.3 vs. 11.1, p = 0.06). Participants with private health insurance had lower financial toxicity scores (8.3 vs. 17.6, p = 0.01). Medications (41%, median AUD 400), dietary supplements (41%, median AUD 600), travel (36%, median AUD 525), and dental (29%, AUD 388) were the most common out-of-pocket expenses. Participants living in rural locations (≥100 km from the hospital) had higher out-of-pocket expenses (AUD 2655 vs. AUD 730, p = 0.01). Conclusion: Financial toxicity is associated with poorer HRQoL for many patients with HNC following treatment. Further research is needed to investigate interventions aimed at reducing financial toxicity and how these can best be incorporated into routine clinical care. MDPI 2023-05-10 /pmc/articles/PMC10217128/ /pubmed/37232829 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/curroncol30050371 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Smith, Justin
Yu, Justin
Gordon, Louisa G.
Chilkuri, Madhavi
Financial Toxicity and Out-of-Pocket Costs for Patients with Head and Neck Cancer
title Financial Toxicity and Out-of-Pocket Costs for Patients with Head and Neck Cancer
title_full Financial Toxicity and Out-of-Pocket Costs for Patients with Head and Neck Cancer
title_fullStr Financial Toxicity and Out-of-Pocket Costs for Patients with Head and Neck Cancer
title_full_unstemmed Financial Toxicity and Out-of-Pocket Costs for Patients with Head and Neck Cancer
title_short Financial Toxicity and Out-of-Pocket Costs for Patients with Head and Neck Cancer
title_sort financial toxicity and out-of-pocket costs for patients with head and neck cancer
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10217128/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37232829
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/curroncol30050371
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