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Catastrophic health expenditure and distress financing of breast cancer treatment in India: evidence from a longitudinal cohort study

International Journal for Equity in Health, ISSN: 1475-9276, Vol: 23, Issue: 1, Page: 145
2024
  • 0
    Citations
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    Usage
  • 20
    Captures
  • 2
    Mentions
  • 0
    Social Media
Metric Options:   Counts1 Year3 Year

Metrics Details

  • Captures
    20
  • Mentions
    2
    • News Mentions
      2
      • 2

Most Recent News

84% breast cancer patients have catastrophic health spend despite reimbursement — Tata Memorial study

New Delhi: Over 84 percent of breast cancer patients in India have to incur catastrophic healthcare expenditure and this form of cancer — the top

Article Description

Objective: To estimate the catastrophic health expenditure and distress financing of breast cancer treatment in India. Methods: The unit data from a longitudinal survey that followed 500 breast cancer patients treated at Tata Memorial Centre (TMC), Mumbai from June 2019 to March 2022 were used. The catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) was estimated using households’ capacity to pay and distress financing as selling assets or borrowing loans to meet cost of treatment. Bivariate and logistic regression models were used for analysis. Findings: The CHE of breast cancer was estimated at 84.2% (95% CI: 80.8,87.9%) and distress financing at 72.4% (95% CI: 67.8,76.6%). Higher prevalence of CHE and distress financing was found among rural, poor, agriculture dependent households and among patients from outside of Maharashtra. About 75% of breast cancer patients had some form of reimbursement but it reduced the incidence of catastrophic health expenditure by only 14%. Nearly 80% of the patients utilised multiple financing sources to meet the cost of treatment. The significant predictors of distress financing were catastrophic health expenditure, type of patient, educational attainment, main income source, health insurance, and state of residence. Conclusion: In India, the CHE and distress financing of breast cancer treatment is very high. Most of the patients who had CHE were more likely to incur distress financing. Inclusion of direct non-medical cost such as accommodation, food and travel of patients and accompanying person in the ambit of reimbursement of breast cancer treatment can reduce the CHE. We suggest that city specific cancer care centre need to be strengthened under the aegis of PM-JAY to cater quality cancer care in their own states of residence. Trial Registration: CTRI/2019/07/020142 on 10/07/2019.

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