ASPO Abstracts
Food Insecurity as a Barrier to Medical Care Among Cancer Survivors
Category: Financial Hardship Associated with Cancer
Conference Year: 2020
Abstract Body:
Purpose: As cancer patients face financial challenges they may be forced to make a trade-off
between food and medical care. We characterized food insecurity and its relationship to
treatment adherence in a population-based sample of cancer survivors. Methods: Individuals
age 21-64 years, diagnosed between 2008 and 2016 with stage I-III breast, colorectal, or
prostate cancer were identified from the New Mexico Tumor Registry and invited to complete a
survey, recalling their financial experience in the year before and the year after cancer
diagnosis. We estimated the prevalence and cumulative incidence of food insecurity,
sociodemographic factors associated with food insecurity, and the relationship between food
insecurity and forgoing, delaying or making changes to various types of medical care.
Multivariable logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence
intervals (CI). Results: Among 394 cancer survivors, the prevalence of food insecurity in the
year after a cancer diagnosis was 33% and the cumulative incidence of food insecurity was
13%. Food insecure cancer survivors tended to have more comorbidities, lower levels of
education, lower income, and were more likely to be Hispanic or unmarried. In addition, those
with very low food security were nearly 3-times as likely to forgo, delay, or make changes to
prescription medication (OR 2.77; 95% CI 1.06-7.25) and nearly 6-times as likely to forgo,
delay, or make changes to treatment other than prescription medication (OR 5.69; 95% CI 1.86-
17.40), than cancer survivors with high food security. Conclusions: Efforts to screen for and
address food insecurity among individuals undergoing cancer treatment should be investigated
as a strategy to reduce socioeconomic disparities in cancer outcomes.
Keywords: food insecurity; survivorship; socioeconomic disparities