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Health inequity associated with financial hardship among patients with kidney failure

Financial hardship is a common challenge among patients with kidney failure and may have negative health consequences. Therefore, financial status is regarded as an important determinant of health, and its impact needs to be investigated. This cross-sectional study aimed to identify the differences...

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Autores principales: Ng, Marques Shek Nam, Chan, Dorothy Ngo Sheung, So, Winnie Kwok Wei
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10289308/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37352190
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287510
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author Ng, Marques Shek Nam
Chan, Dorothy Ngo Sheung
So, Winnie Kwok Wei
author_facet Ng, Marques Shek Nam
Chan, Dorothy Ngo Sheung
So, Winnie Kwok Wei
author_sort Ng, Marques Shek Nam
collection PubMed
description Financial hardship is a common challenge among patients with kidney failure and may have negative health consequences. Therefore, financial status is regarded as an important determinant of health, and its impact needs to be investigated. This cross-sectional study aimed to identify the differences in patient-reported and clinical outcomes among kidney failure patients with different financial status. A total of 354 patients with kidney failure were recruited from March to June 2017 at two hospitals in Hong Kong. The Dialysis Symptoms Index and Kidney Disease Quality of Life-36 were used to evaluate patient-reported outcomes. Clinical outcomes were retrieved from medical records and assessed using the Karnofsky Performance Scale (functional status) and Charlson Comorbidity Index (comorbidity level). Patients were stratified using two dichotomised variables, employment status and income level, and their outcomes were compared using independent sample t-tests and Mann-Whitney U-tests. In this sample, the employment rate was 17.8% and the poverty rate was 61.2%. Compared with other patients, increased distress of specific symptoms and higher healthcare utilization, in terms of more emergency room visits and longer hospital stays, were found in patients with poorer financial status. Low-income patients reported a decreased mental quality of life. Financially underprivileged patients experienced health inequity in terms of impaired outcomes. Attention needs to be paid to these patients by providing financial assessments and interventions. Additional research is warranted to confirm these findings and understand the experience of financial hardship and health equity.
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spelling pubmed-102893082023-06-24 Health inequity associated with financial hardship among patients with kidney failure Ng, Marques Shek Nam Chan, Dorothy Ngo Sheung So, Winnie Kwok Wei PLoS One Research Article Financial hardship is a common challenge among patients with kidney failure and may have negative health consequences. Therefore, financial status is regarded as an important determinant of health, and its impact needs to be investigated. This cross-sectional study aimed to identify the differences in patient-reported and clinical outcomes among kidney failure patients with different financial status. A total of 354 patients with kidney failure were recruited from March to June 2017 at two hospitals in Hong Kong. The Dialysis Symptoms Index and Kidney Disease Quality of Life-36 were used to evaluate patient-reported outcomes. Clinical outcomes were retrieved from medical records and assessed using the Karnofsky Performance Scale (functional status) and Charlson Comorbidity Index (comorbidity level). Patients were stratified using two dichotomised variables, employment status and income level, and their outcomes were compared using independent sample t-tests and Mann-Whitney U-tests. In this sample, the employment rate was 17.8% and the poverty rate was 61.2%. Compared with other patients, increased distress of specific symptoms and higher healthcare utilization, in terms of more emergency room visits and longer hospital stays, were found in patients with poorer financial status. Low-income patients reported a decreased mental quality of life. Financially underprivileged patients experienced health inequity in terms of impaired outcomes. Attention needs to be paid to these patients by providing financial assessments and interventions. Additional research is warranted to confirm these findings and understand the experience of financial hardship and health equity. Public Library of Science 2023-06-23 /pmc/articles/PMC10289308/ /pubmed/37352190 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287510 Text en © 2023 Ng et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Ng, Marques Shek Nam
Chan, Dorothy Ngo Sheung
So, Winnie Kwok Wei
Health inequity associated with financial hardship among patients with kidney failure
title Health inequity associated with financial hardship among patients with kidney failure
title_full Health inequity associated with financial hardship among patients with kidney failure
title_fullStr Health inequity associated with financial hardship among patients with kidney failure
title_full_unstemmed Health inequity associated with financial hardship among patients with kidney failure
title_short Health inequity associated with financial hardship among patients with kidney failure
title_sort health inequity associated with financial hardship among patients with kidney failure
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10289308/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37352190
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287510
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