Influencing factors of economic burden in urban community lung cancer patients

Objective To analyze the economic burden of lung cancer patients with different characteristics and its main influencing factors and to provide evidences for relevant policy-making.Methods A retrospective questionnaire survey was conducted among 195 alive lung cancer patients diagnosed between 2010 through 2014;the patients were recruited from 10 communities in Nangang district of Harbin city via the dataset of National Cancer Registry System of Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention from May to July 2015.Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multivariate regression analysis were adopted in the study using SPSS 18.0.Results The economic burden differed significantly by marital status,education level,per capita household income,and type of health insurance among the patients(all P<0.05).The economic burden of the patients married or living with unmarried cohabiters was 1.79 times higher than those with other marital status (167 052.63±161 064.79 vs.93 343.90±65 745.69 RMB Yuan);the total economic burden of the patients was positively related to their education level and household income per capita,with the highest burden for the patients covered by Urban Employee Basic Medical Insurance (181 866.35±165 885.28 RMB Yuan) and the lowest among those without medical insurance (77 698.64±72 372.87 RMB Yuan).The results of multivariate analysis showed that marital status,household income per capita,and the type of health insurance were main influencing factors for total economic burden among the lung cancer patients.Conclusion Major influencing factors for economic burden of lung cancer patients should be concerned;improving accessibility of health service for the patients with low income or without medical insurance and upgrading social security system could effectively reduce economic burden of lung cancer patients.