Influence of health-insurance on treatment outcome of childhood cancer in Western Kenya

BACKGROUND: Few governments in low and middle-income countries (LMIC) have responded favourably to the international plea for Universal Health Coverage. Childhood cancer survival in LMIC is often below 20%. Limited health-insurance coverage may contribute to this poor survival. Our study explores the influence of health-insurance status on childhood cancer treatment outcomes in a Kenyan academic hospital. METHODS: This was a retrospective medical records review of all children diagnosed with cancer at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital between 2010 and 2016. Socio-demographic and clinical data was collected using a structured data collection form. Fisher’s exact test, chi-squared test, Kaplan–Meier method, log-rank test and Cox proportional hazard model were used to evaluate relationships between treatment outcomes and patient characteristics. Study was approved by Institutional Research Ethics Committee. FINDINGS: From 2010–2016, 879 children were newly diagnosed with cancer. Among 763 patients whose records were available, 28% abandoned treatment, 23% died and 17% had progressive/relapsed disease resulting in 32% event-free survival. In total 280 patients (37%) had health-insurance at diagnosis. After active enrolment during treatment, total health-insurance registration level reached 579 patients (76%). Treatment outcomes differed by health-insurance status (P < 0.001). The most likely treatment outcome in uninsured patients was death (49%), whereas in those with health-insurance at diagnosis and those who enrolled during treatment it was event-free survival (36% and 41% respectively). Overall survival (P < 0.001) and event-free survival (P < 0.001) were higher for insured versus uninsured patients. The hazard-ratio for treatment failure was 0.30 (95% CI:0.22–0.39; P < 0.001) for patients insured at diagnosis and 0.32 (95% CI:0.24–0.41; P < 0.001) for patients insured during treatment in relation to those without insurance. INTERPRETATION: Our study highlights the need for Universal Health Coverage in LMIC. Children without health-insurance had significantly lower survival. Childhood cancer treatment outcomes can be ameliorated by strategies that improve health-insurance access.