Medical care in adolescents and young adult cancer survivors: what are the biggest access-related barriers?

Purpose Adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors experience barriers to utilizing healthcare, but the determinants of cancer-related medical care of AYAs has not been fully explored. Methods We studied factors associated with medical care utilization among 465 AYA cancer survivors in the AY...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of cancer survivorship Vol. 8; no. 2; pp. 282 - 292
Main Authors: Keegan, Theresa H. M., Tao, Li, DeRouen, Mindy C., Wu, Xiao-Cheng, Prasad, Pinki, Lynch, Charles F., Shnorhavorian, Margarett, Zebrack, Brad J., Chu, Roland, Harlan, Linda C., Smith, Ashley W., Parsons, Helen M.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: New York Springer US 01.06.2014
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Cancer
Female
Health care access
Health Informatics
Health insurance
Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
Health Services Accessibility
Health Status
Humans
Insurance, Health
Logistic Models
Male
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Neoplasms - mortality
Neoplasms - therapy
Oncology
Primary Care Medicine
Public Health
Quality of Life Research
Survivor
Survivors
Teenagers
Young Adult
Young adults
Cancer survivors
Adolescent and young adult
Cancer care
Health insurance
ISSN:1932-2259, 1932-2267, 1932-2267
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Purpose Adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors experience barriers to utilizing healthcare, but the determinants of cancer-related medical care of AYAs has not been fully explored. Methods We studied factors associated with medical care utilization among 465 AYA cancer survivors in the AYA Health Outcomes and Patient Experience Study, a cohort of 15 to 39 year olds recently diagnosed with germ cell cancer, lymphoma, sarcoma, or acute lymphocytic leukemia. Descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression methods were used. Results Most AYA cancer survivors (95 %), who were 15–35 months post diagnosis, received medical care in the past 12 months and 17 % were undergoing cancer treatment. In multivariate analyses, compared with AYAs with no cancer-related medical visits in the previous year, AYAs receiving cancer-related care were more likely to currently have health insurance (odds ratio (OR) = 4.9; 95 % confidence interval (CI) = 1.7–13.8) or have had health insurance in the past year (OR = 4.0; 95 % CI = 0.99–16.3). Cancer recurrence, lacking employment, and negative changes in self-reported general health were associated with ongoing cancer treatment versus other cancer-related medical care. Eleven percent of all AYAs and 25 % of AYAs who did not receive medical care in the past 12 months lost health insurance between the initial and follow-up surveys. Conclusion AYA cancer survivors with health insurance were much more likely to receive cancer-related medical care than those without insurance. Implications for Cancer Survivors Despite the need for post-treatment medical care, lacking health insurance is a barrier to receiving any medical care among AYAs.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 14
ObjectType-Article-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
See Acknowledgments
ISSN:1932-2259
1932-2267
1932-2267
DOI:10.1007/s11764-013-0332-4