Financial distress is common among patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), according to new research published in JACC: CardioOncology. In fact, the study’s authors observed, ASCVD is associated with higher rates of financial hardship than cancer.
The analysis focused on financial toxicity (FT), a term used to define the negative financial impact certain health conditions can have on a patient’s life. If a patient has difficulty paying their medical bills or is forced to delay care due to its cost, those are examples of FT. Food insecurity or cost-related medication non-adherence are two other common examples.
A team of researchers tracked five years of survey responses from more than 141,000 adult patients between the ages of 18 to 65. All data came from the National Health Interview Survey. While 6,887 patients had cancer, another 6,093 had ASCVD. Nearly 1,000 patients, meanwhile, had both cancer and ASCVD.
Overall, the prevalence of FT was 54% among ASCVD patients and 41% among cancer patients. Patients with ASCVD were more likely to have difficulty paying their medical bills or affording prescribed medications than other patients.
“Heart disease and cancer are the leading causes of death in the United States, yet most research on financial toxicity has focused on cancer patients,” senior author Khurram Nasir, MD, MPH, MSc, chief of the division of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center, said in a statement. “It is important to consider that cancer patients may have short bursts of high expenditures for treatments, while heart disease patients are often incurring a more chronic economic burden due to drug costs, procedures, clinician visits and hospital stays. Also, as the rate of cancer survival grows, the population of patients with both heart disease and cancer is growing. The financial burden created by these diseases manifests as another form of affliction.”
The authors also highlighted the importance of finding new ways to alleviate FT among these patients and help them secure the care they need.
“The current manuscript gives us an overall picture of the economic burden suffered by patients with heart disease and/or cancer on a national level, and to tackle the two top causes of mortality in the U.S., we have to more aggressively consider the FT associated with both these diseases, and their treatment,” added lead author Javier Valero-Elizondo, MD, MPH, another specialist within the division of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center.
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Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.