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Financial Status, Employment, and Insurance Among Older Cancer Survivors

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ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND

Few data are available about the socioeconomic impact of cancer for long-term cancer survivors.

OBJECTIVES

To investigate socioeconomic outcomes among older cancer survivors compared to non-ancer patients.

DATA SOURCE

2002 Health and Retirement Study.

STUDY DESIGN

We studied 964 cancer survivors of > 4 years and 14,333 control patients who had never had cancer from a population-based sample of Americans ages ≥ 55 years responding to the 2002 Health and Retirement Study.

MEASURES

We compared household income, housing assets, net worth, insurance, employment, and future work expectations.

ANALYSES

Propensity score methods were used to control for baseline differences between cancer survivors and controls.

RESULTS

Female cancer survivors did not differ from non-cancer patients in terms of income, housing assets, net worth, or likelihood of current employment (all P > 0.20); but more were self-employed (25.0% vs. 17.7%; P = 0.03), and fewer were confident that if they lost their job they would find an equally good job in the next few months (38.4% vs. 45.9%; P = 0.03). Among men, cancer survivors and noncancer patients had similar income and housing assets (both P ≥ 0.10) but differed somewhat in net worth (P = 0.04). Male cancer survivors were less likely than other men to be currently employed (25.2% vs. 29.7%) and more likely to be retired (66.9% vs. 62.2%), although the P value did not reach statistical significance (P = 0.06). Men were also less optimistic about finding an equally good job in the next few months if they lost their current job (33.5% vs. 46.9%), although this result was not significant (P = 0.11).

CONCLUSIONS

Despite generally similar socioeconomic outcomes for cancer survivors and noncancer patients ages ≥55 years, a better understanding of employment experience and pessimism regarding work prospects may help to shape policies to benefit cancer survivors.

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Conflict of Interest Statement

There is no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Services Research, Institute of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, Copenhagen C, Denmark

    Marie Norredam MD

  2. Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Marie Norredam MD, Ellen Meara PhD, Mary Beth Landrum PhD, Haiden A. Huskamp PhD & Nancy L. Keating MD, MPH

  3. Division of General Internal Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    Nancy L. Keating MD, MPH

Authors
  1. Marie Norredam MD
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  2. Ellen Meara PhD
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  3. Mary Beth Landrum PhD
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  4. Haiden A. Huskamp PhD
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  5. Nancy L. Keating MD, MPH
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Correspondence to Marie Norredam MD.

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Norredam, M., Meara, E., Landrum, M.B. et al. Financial Status, Employment, and Insurance Among Older Cancer Survivors. J GEN INTERN MED 24 (Suppl 2), 438–445 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-009-1034-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-009-1034-5

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