Financial Burden on Cancer Patient’s Families Due to Non-Medial Expenditure and Distance Travel for Treatment: A Study Based on Cancer Hospital

Mohit Pandey, International Institute For Population Sciences
T R Dilip, IIPS
Sailesh Shrikhande, Tata Memorial Hospital
Manish Bhandare, Tata Memorial Hospital
Amit Chopade, Tata Memorial Hospital

Our study examines the distance traveled by patients and analyses the financial burden on cancer patient’s families due to non-medical expenses. The data (n=244) collected as part of a prospective, non-interventional cohort study conducted at Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH), Mumbai, India. We collected the medical and non-medical expenditures for each visit. The mean distance traveled by patients is 1,475 km. 63.1% of patients are traveling greater than 1,500 km. The mean NMHE for patients traveling more than 1,500 km is ?107,040, nearly two times higher than the expenditure for patients traveling less than 500 km (?49,112). The higher CNMHE was 89.2% for travel above 1500 km. The distress financing due to cancer treatment was 39.3%. Distress financing is higher with CNMHE at 25% (52.8%) compared to CNMHE at 10% (45.8%). 42.9% of NMHE is spent on travel, 33.3% on accommodation, and 17.2% on food. The logistic regression results show that patients traveling>500km are three times more likely to experience CNMHE compared to <500km. Distress financing is twice as in patients >500 km than in patients <500km distances. Strengthening primary health centers (PHCs) and training and deploying oncologists in non-urban areas can help in early detection, reducing medical and non-medical expenses.

Keywords: Longitudinal studies , Mixed methods research, Spatial Demography, Health and Morbidity

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