Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-19-2023
Publication Title
Cureus
Keywords
financial burden, financial assistance, social determinants of health (sdoh), overall survival (os), nonsmall cell lung cancer (nsclc)
ISSN
2168-8184
Volume
15
Issue/No.
3
First Page
e36355
Abstract
PURPOSE: Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most prevalent form of lung cancer. Studies have evaluated the association of social determinants of health (SDH) with outcomes in early-stage NSCLC. These studies have shown statistically and clinically significant associations between overall survival (OS) and other SDH (e.g marital status, educational attainment).The aim of our study was to better understand the role of various SDH on OS in advanced-stage NSCLC patients in a community oncology practice in Florida. Methods: In this retrospective study, 125 patients with stage III and IV NSCLC were identified between January 1, 2014, and December 31, 2018. We performed Pearson's chi-square and Kruskal-Wallis test to evaluate the association between median OS and several independent variables, including; gender, race, marital status, insurance status, living status, receiving financial assistance (FA), alcohol use, and smoking histories. OS is defined as the date of diagnosis up to the date of death. Other confounders that were analyzed included histology, treatment modality, comorbidities, and performance status of the patients. Results: Our results demonstrated that patients receiving FA had nearly a two-fold increase in median OS compared to patients without FA (median OS = 1.01 years vs. 0.545 years, respectively; p = 0.012).
CONCLUSION: Overall, this study highlighted the importance of reducing the financial burden of advanced-stage NSCLC on patients and how FA impacts patient outcomes. However, future prospective cohort studies with a larger sample size are warranted to identify other SDH, as well as the underlying mechanisms affecting median OS, in patients with advanced-stage NSCLC.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
NSUWorks Citation
Bello, Andreas and Makani, Neeharika S., "The Impact of Social Determinants of Health, Namely Financial Assistance, on Overall Survival in Advanced-Stage Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients." (2023). HPD Articles. 243.
https://nsuworks.nova.edu/hpd_facarticles/243
ORCID ID
DOI
10.7759/cureus.36355
Copyright
© Copyright 2023 Bello et al.
Comments
All authors have declared that no financial support was received from any organization for the submitted work.