Cumulative financial stress and strain in palliative radiation outpatients: The role of age and disability

Abstract

Objective financial stress, which incorporates all medical and non-medical financial stressors by households, shapes patients’ subjective perceptions of financial strain. This study addresses whether patient age and disability days reveal patients to have different perceptions of financial strain even when their households incur the same level of financial stress. Among patients with the same level of household financial stress, older patients perceived less financial strain from difficulty paying bills than younger patients. However, among patients reporting above-average disability days, older patients also perceived more financial strain than younger patients about the adequacy of their health insurance and finances in the future. Thus, financial strain measures that focus on projected health needs should supplement those that describe current household circumstances to improve screenings of older patients who are under-prescribed, or unable to adhere to, a regimen for all necessary health care.