Financial Hardship in Patients With Head and Neck Cancer

PURPOSE Financial hardship is a growing concern for patients with cancer. Patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) are particularly vulnerable, given that a third leave the workforce following treatment. The goal of our study was to characterize financial hardship in the psychologic response (response to increased expenses) and coping behaviors (behaviors patients adopt to manage their care in the setting of increased expenses) domains in patients with HNC compared with patients with other cancers. METHODS This was a retrospective cohort study of nationally representative public survey data from 2013 to 2018 in the National Health Interviews Survey, an annual cross-sectional household survey. We included respondents age >= 18 years who reported a diagnosis of cancer and identified a subset of patients with HNC. Our main outcomes were financial hardship in the psychologic response and coping behaviors domains. RESULTS Our sample included a weighted population of 357,052 patients with HNC and 21.4 million patients with other cancers. Compared with patients with other cancers, patients with HNC reported greater levels of coping behaviors hardship (31% v23%, P = .015), but similar levels of psychologic financial hardship (73% v 72%, P = .787). Medicaid or uninsured patients more often reported coping behaviors hardship. On multivariable analysis, HNC (odds ratio, 1.51; 95% CI, 1.01 to 2.24) was independently associated with coping behaviors hardship. CONCLUSION To our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate financial hardship in patients with HNC compared with patients with other cancers that includes Medicaid and uninsured patients, who are more often to have financial hardship. Patients with HNC have greater levels of hardship in the coping behaviors domain compared with patients with other cancers, but similar levels in the psychologic response domain. (C) 2022 by American Society of Clinical Oncology

Automated summary

This study aimed to compare the financial hardship of patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) to patients with other cancers, focusing on the domains of coping behaviors and psychologic response. The results showed that patients with HNC had higher levels of hardship in coping behaviors but similar levels in psychologic response compared to patients with other cancers.