Impact of financial barriers on health status, healthcare utilisation and economic burden among individuals with cognitive impairment: a national cross-sectional survey.

OBJECTIVE: To study the impact of financial barriers to healthcare on health status, healthcare utilisation and costs among patients with cognitive impairment. DESIGN: Cross-sectional. SETTING: National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), 2011-2017. PARTICIPANTS: Patients with cognitive impairment aged 18 years or older. INTERVENTIONS: Financial barriers to healthcare were identified using a series of NHIS prompts asking about the affordability of healthcare services. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Health status was based on a survey prompt about respondents' general health. Healthcare utilisation included office visits, home healthcare visits, hospital stays and emergency department (ED) visits. Economic burden was based on the family spending on medical care. Logistic regression models were used to examine the impact of financial barriers to healthcare access on health status, home healthcare visits, office visits, hospital stays and ED visits, respectively. RESULTS: Compared with cognitively impaired respondents without financial barriers to healthcare access, those with financial barriers were more likely to be unhealthy (OR 0.64, 95% CI 0.57 to 0.72). Cognitively impaired respondents with financial barriers were less likely to have home healthcare (OR 0.69, 95% CI 0.48 to 0.99) and more likely to have hospital stays (OR 1.33, 95% CI 1.19 to 1.48) and ED visits (OR 1.50, 95% CI 1.35 to 1.67). In addition, compared with cognitively impaired respondents without financial barriers to healthcare access, those with the barriers were more likely to have an increased economic burden (OR=1.85, 95% CI 1.65 to 2.07). CONCLUSION: Financial barriers to healthcare worsened health status and increased use of ED, hospitalisation and economic burden. Policy decision-makers, providers and individuals with cognitive impairment should be aware of the impact of financial barriers and take corresponding actions to reduce the impact.

Impact of Cost-Related Medication Nonadherence on Economic Burdens, Productivity Loss, and Functional Abilities: Management of Cancer Survivors in Medicare.

Background: Cancer survivors are vulnerable to have medication nonadherence. We aimed to estimate the impact of cost-related medication nonadherence on economic burdens, productivity loss, and functional abilities among cancer survivors. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), 2011-2018. Cost-related medication nonadherence was identified based on NHIS prompts. An ordinal logistic regression model was used to determine the impact of cost-related medication nonadherence on survivors' economic burden. Two negative binomial regression models were implemented to estimate the impact on productivity loss. In addition, four logistic regression models were used to determine the impact on functional abilities. The weighted analysis was used to generate national estimates. Results: Among 35, 773, 286 cancer survivors, 15, 002, 192 (41.9%) respondents reported that they experienced cost-related medication nonadherence. Compared to cancer survivors without cost-related medication nonadherence, those with nonadherence were significantly associated with an increased economic burden (OR: 1.89, 95% CI: 1.70-2.11). Also, cancer survivors with cost-related medication nonadherence were significantly more likely to have an increased bed disability day (IRR: 1.46, 95% CI: 1.21-1.76). In terms of the limitations, cancer survivors with nonadherence were significantly more likely to have both activity limitation (OR: 1.42, 95% CI: 1.25-1.60) and functional limitation (OR: 2.12, 95% CI: 1.81-2.49). Conclusion: Cost-related medication nonadherence increased economic burdens, productivity loss, and limitations in functional abilities among cancer survivors. Strategies are needed to help cancer survivors with cost-related medication nonadherence to be adherent to prescriptions.