Department of Public Health, College of Medicine, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Korea.
Institute of Health Services Research, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Korea.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Aug 19;17(17):6020. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17176020.
The number of cancer survivors is increasing as a consequence of improved therapeutic options. Many families are suffering from the resultant financial burden. Our study aims to determine the total medical cost for 5 years after the initial diagnosis of childhood cancers. A customized dataset from the Korean National Health Insurance Claims Database was requested for this study. A total of 7317 patients were selected to determine the total medical cost. The costs are presented as the 2% trimmed mean value to exclude extreme costs. The medical costs were further classified according to cancer type, treatment phase, and socioeconomic status. Multiple linear regression analyses were performed. The average total medical cost per patient is 36.8 million Korean Wons or 32,157 United States Dollars. Analysis of socioeconomic status revealed that the higher income group demonstrated higher medical expenditure when compared to other groups. Analysis of the treatment phase showed that costs associated with the early phase of treatment are the highest, especially in the first 3 months after initial diagnosis. To alleviate the financial burden and reduce the socioeconomic disparities associated with medical care and costs, a better understanding of the current experience of patients and their families is required.
由于治疗选择的改善，癌症幸存者的数量正在增加。许多家庭因此承受着经济负担。我们的研究旨在确定儿童癌症初始诊断后 5 年内的总医疗费用。为此研究请求了韩国国家健康保险索赔数据库的定制数据集。共选择了 7317 名患者来确定总医疗费用。费用以 2%修剪均值表示，以排除极端费用。根据癌症类型、治疗阶段和社会经济地位对医疗费用进行了进一步分类。进行了多元线性回归分析。每位患者的平均总医疗费用为 3680 万韩元或 32157 美元。社会经济地位分析表明，与其他群体相比，高收入群体的医疗支出更高。对治疗阶段的分析表明，治疗早期阶段的费用最高，尤其是在初始诊断后的前 3 个月。为了减轻经济负担并减少与医疗保健和费用相关的社会经济差距，需要更好地了解患者及其家庭的现状。
