U.S. cancer survivors with financial difficulties are more likely to visit the emergency department, a new study shows.
Published in in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, the study involved responses to the National Health Interview Survey from 2013 to 2017. Researchers studied responses from about 12,000 cancer survivors.
They found that cancer survivors with higher levels of medical and nonmedical financial hardship were consistently more likely to report ED visits than cancer survivors with lower levels of financial hardship. Similarly, cancer survivors with financial difficulties were more likely to rate their health status worse than those with lower levels of financial difficulties.
As healthcare costs increase, financial difficulties may worsen health disparities among cancer survivors, the researchers said.