Cost of Tobacco-related Cancer Hospitalizations in the U.S., 2014

Abstract

Smoking has been causally linked to 12 tobacco-related cancers: oral cavity and pharynx, esophagus, stomach, colon and rectum, liver, pancreas, larynx, lung, cervix, bladder, kidney, and acute myeloid leukemia. Tobacco-related cancers-related morbidity and mortality have been well described, but little is known about the prevalence of tobacco-related cancer hospitalizations and associated costs. This study estimates the annual number of tobacco-related cancer hospitalizations and their associated direct medical costs in the U.S. This study examined data from the 2014 National Inpatient Sample, the largest publicly available all-payer inpatient care database in the U.S. The authors calculated number of hospitalizations, total costs, length of stay, and cost per stay for tobacco-related cancer hospitalizations and cancer hospitalizations not related to tobacco. In 2014, there were an estimated 461,295 annual tobacco-related cancer hospitalizations at a cost of $8.2 billion in the U.S. Tobacco-related cancers accounted for 45% of total cancer hospitalizations and cancer hospitalization costs. Compared with cancer hospitalizations not related to tobacco, tobacco-related cancer hospitalizations had a longer mean length of stay (6.8 vs 5.7 days). The burden of tobacco-related cancer hospitalizations is substantial in the U.S. These findings highlight the importance of tobacco prevention and cessation efforts to decrease the burden of tobacco-related cancers in the U.S.