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Substance Use in Uninsured Cancer Survivors: A Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study of Free Clinics

Introduction Substance use disorders occur in about 5% of the cancer population and can decrease treatment adherence, impede pain management, and undermine a cancer survivor’s network of social support. Although current literature demonstrates substance use is associated with socioeconomic disparity...

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Autores principales: MacDonald, Madeline, Shah, Shreni, Swanson, Justin, Song, Ethan, Ahsan, Tanzila, Pabbathi, Smitha, Mhaskar, Rahul, Mirza, Abu-Sayeef
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cureus 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7522175/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33005507
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.10083
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author MacDonald, Madeline
Shah, Shreni
Swanson, Justin
Song, Ethan
Ahsan, Tanzila
Pabbathi, Smitha
Mhaskar, Rahul
Mirza, Abu-Sayeef
author_facet MacDonald, Madeline
Shah, Shreni
Swanson, Justin
Song, Ethan
Ahsan, Tanzila
Pabbathi, Smitha
Mhaskar, Rahul
Mirza, Abu-Sayeef
author_sort MacDonald, Madeline
collection PubMed
description Introduction Substance use disorders occur in about 5% of the cancer population and can decrease treatment adherence, impede pain management, and undermine a cancer survivor’s network of social support. Although current literature demonstrates substance use is associated with socioeconomic disparity, there is limited research on the prevalence of alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drug use among uninsured cancer survivors in the United States. Our multicenter cross-sectional study describes the prevalence of substance use in uninsured cancer survivors in the Tampa Bay Area. Methods A comprehensive retrospective chart review of electronic medical records and paper charts was conducted at nine free clinics in the Tampa Bay Area of Florida between January 1, 2016, and December 31, 2017. Substance use prevalence was compared between uninsured cancer survivors and uninsured patients without reported cancer history after adjusting for available demographic risk factors. Results There were 222 patients with a history of cancer and 6,768 patients without a history of cancer included for analysis. Cancer survivors had a median age of 55 years (interquartile range 48-61 years), were mostly female (n = 146, 66.1%), and of Hispanic ethnicity (n = 94, 52.5%). Cancer survivors were more likely to be current smokers (n = 42, 25.1%) compared to patients without a cancer history (n = 759, 16.1%). Patients with a history of cancer were more likely to be current drinkers (n = 34, 26%) compared to non-cancer patients (n = 942, 22.9%). There was no significant difference in illicit drug use history between the two groups. Conclusions Our study demonstrates that uninsured cancer survivors are more likely to be smokers and alcohol consumers than uninsured patients without a history of cancer. There was no significant difference in illicit drug use in cancer survivors and patients without a history of cancer. Future educational interventions should target substance use among uninsured cancer survivors.
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spelling pubmed-75221752020-09-30 Substance Use in Uninsured Cancer Survivors: A Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study of Free Clinics MacDonald, Madeline Shah, Shreni Swanson, Justin Song, Ethan Ahsan, Tanzila Pabbathi, Smitha Mhaskar, Rahul Mirza, Abu-Sayeef Cureus Oncology Introduction Substance use disorders occur in about 5% of the cancer population and can decrease treatment adherence, impede pain management, and undermine a cancer survivor’s network of social support. Although current literature demonstrates substance use is associated with socioeconomic disparity, there is limited research on the prevalence of alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drug use among uninsured cancer survivors in the United States. Our multicenter cross-sectional study describes the prevalence of substance use in uninsured cancer survivors in the Tampa Bay Area. Methods A comprehensive retrospective chart review of electronic medical records and paper charts was conducted at nine free clinics in the Tampa Bay Area of Florida between January 1, 2016, and December 31, 2017. Substance use prevalence was compared between uninsured cancer survivors and uninsured patients without reported cancer history after adjusting for available demographic risk factors. Results There were 222 patients with a history of cancer and 6,768 patients without a history of cancer included for analysis. Cancer survivors had a median age of 55 years (interquartile range 48-61 years), were mostly female (n = 146, 66.1%), and of Hispanic ethnicity (n = 94, 52.5%). Cancer survivors were more likely to be current smokers (n = 42, 25.1%) compared to patients without a cancer history (n = 759, 16.1%). Patients with a history of cancer were more likely to be current drinkers (n = 34, 26%) compared to non-cancer patients (n = 942, 22.9%). There was no significant difference in illicit drug use history between the two groups. Conclusions Our study demonstrates that uninsured cancer survivors are more likely to be smokers and alcohol consumers than uninsured patients without a history of cancer. There was no significant difference in illicit drug use in cancer survivors and patients without a history of cancer. Future educational interventions should target substance use among uninsured cancer survivors. Cureus 2020-08-27 /pmc/articles/PMC7522175/ /pubmed/33005507 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.10083 Text en Copyright © 2020, MacDonald et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Oncology
MacDonald, Madeline
Shah, Shreni
Swanson, Justin
Song, Ethan
Ahsan, Tanzila
Pabbathi, Smitha
Mhaskar, Rahul
Mirza, Abu-Sayeef
Substance Use in Uninsured Cancer Survivors: A Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study of Free Clinics
title Substance Use in Uninsured Cancer Survivors: A Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study of Free Clinics
title_full Substance Use in Uninsured Cancer Survivors: A Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study of Free Clinics
title_fullStr Substance Use in Uninsured Cancer Survivors: A Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study of Free Clinics
title_full_unstemmed Substance Use in Uninsured Cancer Survivors: A Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study of Free Clinics
title_short Substance Use in Uninsured Cancer Survivors: A Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study of Free Clinics
title_sort substance use in uninsured cancer survivors: a multicenter cross-sectional study of free clinics
topic Oncology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7522175/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33005507
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.10083
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