Health insurance and unmet food, housing, and transportation needs among cancer survivors: Implications for survivorship care.
Year: 2026
Type: conference-abstract
Abstract: 363 Background: Cancer survivors face financial challenges beyond treatment, but insurance factors and unmet social needs, particularly among childhood and young adult survivors, remain unknown. Methods: Participants from two insurance navigation trials (HINT: childhood cancer survivors, N=519 within the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study; CHAT: young adult survivors from Utah, N=272) completed enrollment surveys. Insurance measures included adult periods of uninsurance, a sum of coverage types including medical/prescription/dental, and policyholder status. Unmet food, housing, and transportation were aggregated as ≥1 unmet social need. Multivariable logistic regression examined associations between insurance and demographic factors (age, gender, household income) and ≥1 unmet need in each sample. Results: Mean age was 45.0 (SD=9.5) years in HINT and 35.2 (SD=4.2) years in CHAT. Most participants were female (60.6%; 70.1%, respectively), college graduates (68.6%; 63.0%), privately insured (76.3%; 81.6%), and their own policyholder (82.8%; 70.8%). HINT participants had higher incomes (31.1%; 22.5% >$150,000/year). Overall, 25.0% and 37.2% reported ≥1 unmet need, with food insecurity most common (19.9%; 33.1%). In HINT, uninsurance was associated with higher unmet needs odds (odds ratio[OR]=1.71, 95%CI: 1.05-2.77); older age and higher income were associated with lower odds (Table). In CHAT, being one’s own policyholder was associated with lower unmet needs odds (OR=0.42, 95%CI: 0.19-0.92); higher income was also protective. Conclusions: Unmet social needs were common in both survivor groups, underscoring the need for financial support in survivorship care. Younger, lower income, insurance unstable, and non-policy holder survivors may need extra support. Clinical trial information: NCT05829070 . Association of insurance and demographic factors on ≥1 unmet need. HINT N=519 CHAT N=272 Odds Ratio p-value 95% CI Odds Ratio p-value 95% CI Insurance Ever Uninsured No 1 1 Yes 1.71 0.03 1.05 2.77 1.69 0.12 0.87 3.30 Insurance types* 0.97 0.56 0.89 1.06 0.93 0.34 0.80 1.08 Policy holder Other 1 1
Source: JCO Oncology Practice
Authors: Anne C. Kirchhoff, Katie Rogers, Cindy A Turner, Amy Chevrier, Calli O. Mitchell, Zoe Troubh, Ida A Tovar, Allyson Foor, Monique A Stefanou, Echo Warner, Giselle K. Perez, Heydon K. Kaddas, Perla L. Vaca Lopez, Lakisa Ards, Shani Alston, Vikki G. Nolan, Douglas Beaty Fair, Mark Andrew Lewis, Gregory T. Armstrong, Elyse Richelle Park
Language: English
Subfield: Economics and Econometrics
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W7221583548