Financial toxicity describes the negative effects of the economic burden of medical care on patients that potentially lead to poor well-being and quality of life. Co-ordinated efforts at the care provider, health system, insurance and government level, supported by emerging research into remedial approaches, are needed to address this problem.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 1 digital issues and online access to articles
$99.00 per year
only $99.00 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Yabroff, K. R., Zhao, J., Han, X. & Zheng, Z. Prevalence and correlates of medical financial hardship in the USA. J. Gen. Intern. Med. 34, 1494–1502 (2019).
Valero-Elizondo, J. et al. Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, cancer, and financial toxicity among adults in the United States. JACC CardioOncol. 3, 236–246 (2021).
Lyman, G. H. & Kuderer, N. Financial toxicity, financial abuse, or financial torture: let’s call it what it is! Cancer Invest. 38, 139–142 (2020).
Fitch, M. I., Sharp, L., Hanly, P. & Longo, C. J. Experiencing financial toxicity associated with cancer in publicly funded healthcare systems: a systematic review of qualitative studies. J. Cancer Surviv. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-021-01025-7 (2021).
Gordon, L. G., Merollini, K. M. D., Lowe, A. & Chan, R. J. A systematic review of financial toxicity among cancer survivors: we can’t pay the co-pay. Patient 10, 295–309 (2017).
Ramsey, S. D. et al. Financial insolvency as a risk factor for early mortality among patients with cancer. J. Clin. Oncol. 34, 980–986 (2016).
Bradley, C. J., Yabroff, K. R. & Shih, Y. T. A coordinated policy approach to address medical financial toxicity. JAMA Oncol. 7, 1761–1762 (2021).
Patel, M. R. et al. A scoping review of behavioral interventions addressing medical financial hardship. Popul. Health Manag. 24, 710–721 (2021).
Pisu, M. et al. Perspectives on conversations about costs of cancer care of breast cancer survivors and cancer center staff: a qualitative study. Ann. Intern. Med. 170 (Suppl. 9), 54–61 (2019).
Jones, S. M., Henrikson, N. B., Panattoni, L., Syrjala, K. L. & Shankaran, V. A theoretical model of financial burden after cancer diagnosis. Future Oncol. 16, 3095–3105 (2020).
Acknowledgements
The authors are thankful for funding for the Emotional Well-being and Economic Burden Research Network from the National Center For Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) and the Office Of The Director of the National Institutes Of Health (OD) (U24AT011310).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Pisu, M., Martin, M.Y. Financial toxicity: a common problem affecting patient care and health. Nat Rev Dis Primers 8, 7 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41572-022-00341-1
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41572-022-00341-1