The Financial Burden of Cancer on Families in the United States

Name: The Financial Burden of Cancer on Families in the United States
Published: 2017-06-29
License: This work is licensed under an Other license created by the PSID, namely that you agree not to redistribute data or other materials without the written agreement of ICPSR, unless: 1. You serve as the OFFICIAL or DESIGNATED REPRESENTATIVE at an ICPSR MEMBER INSTITUTION and are assisting AUTHORIZED USERS with obtaining data, or 2. You are collaborating with other AUTHORIZED USERS to analyze the data for research or instructional purposes.

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
PSID2011_FAMIND.dta	application/x-stata	71.1 MB	06/29/2017 07:35:AM

Project Citation:

Richard, Patrick. The Financial Burden of Cancer on Families in the United States . Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2017-06-29. https://doi.org/10.3886/E100785V1

Project Description

Summary: This study examined the relationship between a diagnosis of cancer and the likelihood of having any out of pocket costs (OOPC) and medical debt, and the amounts of OOPC and medical debt, at the household level. We used the 2011 Panel Study of Income Dynamics, an ongoing nationally representative panel survey that collects detailed socioeconomic and demographic data in the United States. The analytic sample included households where heads and their spouse (if married) were between 18 and 64 years old. Adjusted logistic regression models and generalized linear models with logarithmic link and a gamma distribution were used. Two models were used. Model 1 controlled for the gender, age, race, marital status, and education of the head of household, and household variables of the number of children in the household, the number of chronic health conditions for the head of household and spouse if married, and households where both the head and the spouse (if married) reported a diagnosis of cancer. Model 2 additionally controlled for home equity. Related to OOPC, both models showed that having a diagnosis of cancer increased a households likelihood of having any OOPC by 119% (p < .01) compared to those that did not have a diagnosis of cancer. Additionally, for households with positive amounts of OOPC, it was found that a diagnosis of cancer increased the amount of OOPC by 24% (p < .01) compared to households without a diagnosis of cancer. Related to medical debt, Model 1 showed that having a diagnosis of cancer increased a households likelihood of having any medical debt by 67% (p = .052) compared to those without a diagnosis of cancer. However, when including home equity in Model 2, having a diagnosis of cancer increased a households likelihood of having any medical debt by 78% (p < .05) compared to those without a diagnosis of cancer. Further, a diagnosis of cancer increased the amount of medical debt similarly for Model 1 (101%) and Model 2 (102%) for households with positive amounts of medical debt compared to those without a diagnosis of cancer (p < .05). All tests of significance were two-sided. This study shows that a diagnosis of cancer imposes a significant financial burden on families in the United States even after controlling for systematic differences between households with a diagnosis of cancer compared to those without a diagnosis of cancer.

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