Financial Distress and its Predicting Factors among Iranian Cancer Patients

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> Financial distress due to the cost of cancer treatments is prevalent among cancer patients.Identifying the level of financial distress and its affecting factors has an important role in providing supportiveservices. Accordingly, the aims of this study were to determine these parameters among Iranian cancer patients.Materials and <br/><b>Methods</b>: This descriptive-correlational study was undertaken among 262 cancer patients admittedto both private and public hospitals in East Azerbaijan province, Iran. The financial distress/financial well beingscale was used to determine financial distress. The data were analyzed using SPSS software using descriptiveand inferential statistics (multiple linear regression). <br/><b>Results</b>: Among the 262 cancer patients, 57.3% were maleand their mean age was 47.0 years. The mean score for financial distress was 4.12 (2.01). The final regressionmodel demonstrated that the independent variables (predictors) of income less than living expenses, incomeequal to living expenses, having an employed spouse in governmental job and living with parents, with regressioncoefficients of -1.029, -0.515, 0.198, and 0.096, respectively, were predictors of financial distress among cancerpatients. These variables accounted for 50% of changes in variance of financial distress. <br/><b>Conclusions</b>: Iraniancancer patients have moderate to high levels of financial distress. Considering policies for managing direct andindirect costs of cancer treatments must be followed.