[Economic burden of cancer in China during 1996-2014: a systematic review]

Improvement of Cancer Prevention and Control: Reflection on the Role of Emerging Information Technologies

Cancer has become an important public health problem affecting the health of Chinese residents, as well as residents all over the world. With the improvement of cancer prevention and treatment, the growth of the mortality rate of cancers has slowed down gradually, but the incidence rate is still increasing rapidly, and cancers still impose heavy disease and economic burdens. Cancer screening and early cancer diagnosis and treatment are important ways to reduce the burden of cancer-related diseases. At present, various projects for early cancer diagnosis and treatment have been implemented in China. With the expansion of the coverage of these projects, the problems related to project implementation, operation, and management have emerged gradually. In recent years, emerging information technologies have been applied in the field of health and have facilitated health management and clinical decision-making. Meanwhile, China announced multiple policies to encourage and promote the application of information technologies in the field of health. Therefore, combined with the analysis of major problems in cancer prevention and control projects, this paper probes into how to apply information technologies such as biological information mining, artificial intelligence, and electronic information collection technology to various stages of cancer prevention and control. Information technologies realize the integrated management of prevention and control processes, for example, mobilization and preliminary identification, high-risk assessment, clinical screening, clinical diagnosis and treatment, tracking and follow-up, and biological sample management of high-risk groups, and promote the efficient implementation of cancer prevention and control projects in China.

Financial toxicity in female patients with breast cancer: a national cross-sectional study in China

PURPOSE

To quantify financial toxicity of female patients with breast cancer in China and investigate its factors and patients' coping strategies.

METHODS

The Comprehensive Score for Financial Toxicity (COST) is defined by using a structured questionnaire containing 12 items measuring perceived affordability of healthcare services, with the range of scoring of which being from 0 to 44 (higher score indicates lower financial toxicity). From January to March 2021, a total of 664 female patients diagnosed with stage 0-IV breast cancer were recruited from 33 public tertiary cancer hospitals located in 31 provinces of China. Multivariate linear regression models were used.

RESULTS

The median age of patients was 48 years (range: 26-84 years), and 62.04% lived in urban areas. The median COST score was 21.00 (interquartile range: 15-26). Older age, higher household income, and better self-reported health status were associated with lower financial toxicity, while a bigger household size, being retired or unemployed, stage IV cancer, and a history of targeted therapy were associated with higher financial toxicity (all P < 0.05). Nearly half of the patients reported using at least one coping strategy, including considering quitting treatment, delaying treatment, and failing to take medicine or attend medical visits as instructed. The people with increased financial toxicity seem to adopt more coping strategies.

CONCLUSIONS

Financial toxicity and coping strategies are common among Chinese women with breast cancer. An understanding of the factors regarding financial toxicity may help oncologists and policy-makers identify at-risk patients and develop targeted interventions.

Socio-Economic and Rural-Urban Differences in Healthcare and Catastrophic Health Expenditure Among Cancer Patients in China: Analysis of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study

Objective: In China, cancer accounts for one-fifth of all deaths, and exerts a heavy toll on patients, families, healthcare systems, and society as a whole. This study aims to examine the temporal trends in socio-economic and rural-urban differences in treatment, healthcare service utilization and catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) among adult cancer patients in China. We also investigate the relationship between different types of treatment and healthcare service utilization, as well as the incidence of CHE.

Materials and Methods: We analyzed data from the 2011 and 2015 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, a nationally representative survey including 17,224 participants (234 individuals with cancer) in 2011 and 19,569 participants (368 individuals with cancer) in 2015. The study includes six different types of cancer treatments: Chinese traditional medication (TCM); western modern medication (excluding TCM and chemotherapy medications); a combination of TCM & western medication; surgery; chemotherapy; and radiation therapy. Multivariable regression models were performed to investigate the association between cancer treatments and healthcare service utilization and CHE.

Results: The age-adjusted prevalence of cancer increased from 1.37% to 1.84% between 2011 and 2015. More urban patients (54%) received cancer treatment than rural patients (46%) in 2015. Patients with high socio-economic status (SES) received a higher proportion of surgical and chemotherapy treatments compared to patients with low SES in 2015. Incidence of CHE declined by 22% in urban areas but increased by 31% in rural areas. We found a positive relationship between cancer treatment and outpatient visits (OR = 2.098, 95% CI = 1.453, 3.029), hospital admission (OR = 1.961, 95% CI = 1.346, 2.857) and CHE (OR = 1.796, 95% CI = 1.231, 2.620). Chemotherapy and surgery were each associated with a 2-fold increased risk of CHE.

Conclusions: Significant improvements in health insurance benefit packages are necessary to ensure universal, affordable and patient-centered health coverage for cancer patients in China.

Characteristics and implications of insurance-reimbursed inpatient care for gastric and oesophageal cancers in Anhui, China

BACKGROUND

This study aimed to identify characteristics and trends in insurance-reimbursed inpatient care (NRIC) for gastric and oesophageal cancers and inform evaluation of medical systems reform.

METHODS

The study extracted routinely collected records of claims for reimbursement from the New Rural Cooperative Medical System (NRCMS) in Anhui Province, China and performed descriptive and regression discontinuity analysis.

RESULTS

From 2013 to 2017, NRIC in terms of person-time per million people (pmp) increased 5.60 and 20.62 times for gastric and oesophageal cancers, respectively. Total expense per episode for gastric and oesophageal cancers increased from 1130.25 and 22 697.99 yuan to 12 514.98 and 24 639.37 yuan, respectively. The ratio of out-of-pocket expenses per inpatient care episode to annual disposable income per capita was 0.43 for gastric cancer and 0.91 for oesophageal cancer and decreased by 0.17 and 0.47, respectively. Regression discontinuity modelling revealed that, when controlled for disposable income, illiteracy rate and months from start time, the treatment variable was significantly associated with person-times of NRIC pmp (β=0.613, p=0.000), length of stay per 105 people (β=-52.990, p=0.000) and total expenses per NRIC episode (β=2.431, p=0.000).

CONCLUSIONS

The study period witnessed substantial achievements in benefits to patients, inpatient care efficiency and equity. These achievements may be attributed mainly to the recent reforms launched in Anhui province, China.

Expenditure and Financial Burden for Stomach Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment in China: A Multicenter Study

Background: Stomach cancer is a huge threat to the health of Chinese people. However, few studies have looked into the expenditure and financial burden due to stomach cancer in China. Methods: To estimate the direct (medical and non-medical) and indirect expenditure for diagnosis and treatment for stomach cancer patients in China, a multicenter survey was conducted in 37 tertiary hospitals in 13 provinces across China from 2012 to 2014. Each enrolled patient was interviewed through a structured questionnaire. The medical and non-medical expenditure at different clinical stages, the composition of non-medical expenditure, and the time loss for the cancer patient and their family were assessed. All expenditure data were inflated to the 2014 Chinese Yuan [CNY; 1 CNY = 0.163 USA dollar (USD)]. Results: A total of 2,401 stomach cancer patients with a mean age of 58.1 ± 11.4 years were included, predominately male. The overall average direct expenditure per patient was estimated to be US $9,899 (medical expenditure 91.2%, non-medical expenditure 8.8%), and the expenditures for stage I, II, III, and IV were $8,648, $9,004, $9,810, and $10,816, respectively; expenditure in stage III and IV was significantly higher than that in stages I and II (p < 0.05). One-year out-of-pocket expenditure of a newly diagnosed patient with stomach cancer was $5,368, accounting for 63.8% of their previous-year household income, which led to 79.2% families suffering an unmanageable financial burden. The average loss of time for patients and caregivers was $996. Conclusions: This study indicated that the economic burden of stomach cancer in urban China was onerous. Effective intervention is necessary to reduce the financial burden by reducing the personal payment ratio and increasing the reimbursement ratio.

The economic burden of cervical cancer from diagnosis to one year after final discharge in Henan Province, China: A retrospective case series study

Background

In China, the disease burden of cervical cancer remains substantial. Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines are expensive and not yet centrally funded. To inform immunization policy, understanding the economic burden of the disease is necessary. This study adopted a societal perspective and investigated costs and quality of life changes associated with cervical cancer from diagnosis to one year after final discharge in Henan province, China.

Methods

Inpatient records of cervical cancer patients admitted to the largest cancer hospital in Henan province between Jan. 2017 and Dec. 2018 were extracted. A telephone interview with four modules was conducted in Jun.-Jul. 2019 with a 40% random draw of patients to obtain direct non-medical costs and indirect costs associated with inpatients, costs associated with outpatient visits, and changes in quality of life status using the EQ-5D-5L instrument. Direct medical expenditures were converted to opportunity costs of care using cost-to-charge ratios obtained from hospital financial reports. For each clinical stage (IA-IV), total costs per case from diagnosis to one year after final discharge were extrapolated based on inpatient records, responses to the telephone interview, and recommendation on outpatient follow-ups by Chinese cervical cancer treatment guidelines. Loss in quality-adjusted life years was obtained using the ‘under the curve’ method and regression predictions.

Results

A total of 3,506 inpatient records from 1,323 patients were obtained. Among 541 randomly selected patients, 309 completed at least one module of the telephone interview. The average total costs per case associated with cervical cancer from diagnosis to one year after final discharge ranged from $8,066-$22,888 (in 2018 US Dollar) and the quality-adjusted life years loss varied from 0.05–0.26 for IA-IV patients.

Conclusions

The economic burden associated with cervical cancer is substantial in Henan province. Our study provided important baseline information for cost-effectiveness analysis of HPV immunization program in China.

Work and income changes after cancer in rural China: A cross-sectional survey

Background

The present study aimed to first describe the work‐related outcomes of cancer survivors and to then identify those characteristics that influenced the decision to stop working in rural China.

Methods

We assessed 752 cancer survivors (residents of rural areas, working at the time of diagnosis, >1 year since completing treatment) from the cross‐sectional study “China Survey of Experiences with Cancer”. Participants reported changes in employment status, income, and the ability to perform physical jobs due to cancer, as well as the work‐related outcomes of their informal caregivers. Logistic regression analyses were used to examine the association between sociodemographic characteristics, cancer characteristics, and changes in work (ie, continue to work vs not working).

Results

The participants were largely farmers (96%), women (56%), younger than 65 years old (69%), and diagnosed with colorectal (31%) and breast cancer (31%). Thirty‐nine percent reported reducing working hours, and 40% reported stopping work altogether. Approximately 7% of informal caregivers also stopped working in order to take care of those diagnosed with cancer. Thirty‐three percent of cancer survivors and 5% of their informal caregivers had no source of income following treatment. Controlling for other variables, lower educational attainment, physical limitations in work, and different cancer sites were significantly associated with ending employment in both men and women, while among men specifically, we observed that older age, being unmarried, and being diagnosed at later stages were significantly associated with an end to working.

Conclusion

Rural cancer survivors are at a high risk for stopping work after completing treatment, and many survivors and their caregivers experience poor work‐related outcomes and economic hardship. These results highlight the importance of paying attention to the work experiences of cancer survivors in rural China.

Development and application of a framework to estimate health care costs in China: The cervical cancer example

Objectives

Information on healthcare costs in low-and-middle-income countries is limited. This study presents a framework to perform healthcare cost estimates for each province in China.

Methods

This study has two aims. Using cervical cancer as an example, the first aim is to use data (including micro-costing data) from one province to derive estimates for other provinces in China. This used provincial and national Chinese-language statistical reports and considered levels of service delivery, hospital-seeking behaviour, and the urban/rural population distribution. The second aim is to characterise the relationship between the reference costs estimated using the method mentioned above and two sets of cost estimates derived using simplified cost-scaling method with per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and the Human Development Index (HDI). For simplified methods, regression modelling characterised the relationship between province-specific healthcare costs and macro-economic indicators, then we used the exponential fit to extrapolate costs.

Results

Using the reference method, the estimated costs were found to vary substantially by urban/rural regions and between provinces; the ratios of highest to lowest provincial costs were 3.5 for visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA), 4.4 for cold knife conisation (CKC) and 4.6 for stage II cancer treatment. The HDI-based scaling method generally resulted in a better fit to reference costs than the GDP method.

Conclusions

These reference costs for cervical cancer can inform cost-effectiveness evaluation of cervical screening and HPV vaccination in China. HDI-based methods for cost-scaling-based on social, as well as purely economic, factors-have potential to provide more accurate estimates.

End-of-life cost and its determinants for cancer patients in urban China: a population-based retrospective study

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to define the end-of-life (EOL) healthcare utilisation and its cost and determinants for cancer patients and to proactively inform related strategies in mainland China.

DESIGN

A population-based retrospective study.

SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS

Data from 894 cancer patients were collected in urban Yichang, China from 01 July 2015 to 30 June 2017.

OUTCOME MEASURES

Emergency department (ED) visits, outpatient and inpatient hospitalisation services, intensive care unit (ICU) admission and total costs were used as the main outcomes.

RESULTS

In this study, 66.8% of the 894 patients were male, and the average age was 60.4 years. Among these patients, 37.6% died at home, and patients had an average of 4.86 outpatient services, 2.23 inpatient hospitalisation services and 1.44 ED visits. Additionally, 5.9% of these patients visited the ICU at least once. During the EOL periods, the costs in the last 6 months, 3 months, 1 month and 1 week were US$18 234, US$13 043, US$6349 and US$2085, respectively. The cost increased dramatically as death approached. The estimation results of generalised linear regression models showed that aggressive care substantially affected expenditure. Patients with Urban Employee Basic Medical Insurance spent more than those with Urban Resident-based Basic Medical Insurance or the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme. The place of death and the survival time are also risk factors for increased EOL cost.

CONCLUSION

The findings suggested that the EOL cost for cancer patients is associated with aggressive care, insurance type and survival time. Timing palliative care is urgently needed to address ineffective and irrational healthcare utilisation and to reduce costs.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (IORG No.: IORG0003571). All the data used in this study were de-identified.

Medical expenditures for colorectal cancer diagnosis and treatment: A 10-year high-level-hospital-based multicenter retrospective survey in China, 20022011

Objective

Colorectal cancer (CRC) causes a substantial burden of disease in China and the evidence of economic burden triggered is fundamental for priority setting. The aim of this survey was to quantify medical expenditures and the time trends for CRC diagnosis and treatment in China.

Methods

From 2012 to 2014, a hospital-based multicenter retrospective survey was conducted in 13 provinces across China. For each eligible CRC patient diagnosed from 2002 to 2011, clinical information and expenditure data were extracted using a uniform questionnaire. All expenditure data were reported in Chinese Yuan (CNY) using 2011 values.

Results

Of the 14,536 CRC patients included, the average age at diagnosis was 58.2 years and 15.8% were stage-I cases. The average medical expenditure per patient was estimated at 37,902 CNY [95 % confidence interval (95% CI): 37,282−38,522], and the annual average increase rate was 9.2% from 2002 to 2011 (P for trend <0.001), with a cumulative increase of 2.4 times (from 23,275 CNY to 56,010 CNY). The expenditure per patient in stages I, II, III and IV were 31,698 CNY, 37,067 CNY, 38,918 CNY and 42,614 CNY, respectively (P<0.001). Expenditure significantly differed within various subgroups. Expenses for drugs contributed the largest proportion (52.6%).

Conclusions

These conservative estimates illustrated that medical expenditures for CRC diagnosis and treatment in tertiary hospitals in China were substantial and increased rapidly over the 10 years, with drugs continually being the main expense by 2011. Relatively, medical expenditures are lower for CRC in the earlier stages. These findings will facilitate the economic evaluation of CRC prevention and control in China.

Trajectories of Hospitalization Cost Among Patients of End-Stage Lung Cancer: A Retrospective Study in China

This study was conducted to investigate the trajectory of hospitalization costs, and to assess the determinants related to the membership of the identified trajectories, with the view of recommending future research directions. A retrospective study was performed in urban Yichang, China, where a total of 134 end-stage lung cancer patients were selected. The latent class analysis (LCA) model was used to investigate the heterogeneity in the trajectory of hospitalization cost amongst the different groups that were identified. A multi-nominal logit model was applied to explore the attributes of different classes. Three classes were defined as follows: Class 1 represented the trajectory with minimal cost, which had increased over the last two months. Classes 2 and 3 consisted of patients that incurred high costs, which had declined with the impending death of the patient. Patients in class 3 had a higher average cost than those in Class 2. The level of education, hospitalization, and place of death, were the attributes of membership to the different classes. LCA was useful in quantifying heterogeneity amongst the patients. The results showed the attributes were embedded in hospitalization cost trajectories. These findings are applicable to early identification and intervention in palliative care. Future studies should focus on the validation of the proposed model in clinical settings, as well as to identify the determinants of early discharge or aggressive care.

Medical expenses of urban Chinese patients with stomach cancer during 2002-2011: a hospital-based multicenter retrospective study

Background

In China, stomach cancer is the third most common cancer and the third leading cause of cancer death. Few studies have examined Chinese stomach cancer patients’ medical expenses and their associated trends. The Cancer Screening Program in Urban China (CanSPUC) is a Major Public Health Project funded by the central government. Through this project, we have extracted patients’ medical expenses from hospital billing data to examine the costs of the first course treatments (which refers to 2 months before and 10 months after the date of cancer diagnosis) in Chinese patients with stomach cancer and the associated trends.

Methods

The expense data of 14,692 urban Chinese patients with stomach cancer were collected from 40 hospitals in 13 provinces. We estimated the inflation-adjusted medical expenses per patient during 2002–2011. We described the time trends of medical expenses at the country-level, and those trends by subgroup, and analyzed the compositions of medical expenses. We constructed the Generalized Linear Mixed (GLM) regression model with Poisson distribution to examine the factors that were associated with medical expenses per patient.

Results

The average medical expenses of the first course treatments were about 43,249 CNY (6851 USD) in 2011, more than twice of that in 2002. The expenses increased by an average annual rate of 7.4%. Longer stay during hospitalization and an increased number of episodes of care are the two main contributors to the expense increase. The upward trend of medical expenses was observed in almost all patient subgroups. Drug expenses accounted for over half of the medical expenses.

Conclusions

The average medical expenses of the first course (2 months before and 10 months after the date of cancer diagnosis) treatments per stomach cancer patient in urban China in 2011 were doubled during the previous 10 years, and about twice as high as the per capita disposable income of urban households in the same year. Such high expenses indicate that it makes economic sense to invest in cancer prevention and control in China.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12885-018-4357-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Expenditure and financial burden for the diagnosis and treatment of colorectal cancer in China: a hospital-based, multicenter, cross-sectional survey

BACKGROUND

The increasing prevalence of colorectal cancer (CRC) in China and the paucity of information about relevant expenditure highlight the necessity of better understanding the financial burden and effect of CRC diagnosis and treatment. We performed a survey to quantify the direct medical and non-medical expenditure as well as the resulting financial burden of CRC patients in China.

METHODS

We conducted a multicenter, cross-sectional survey in 37 tertiary hospitals in 13 provinces across China between 2012 and 2014. Each enrolled patient was interviewed using a structured questionnaire. All expenditure data were inflated to the 2014 Chinese Yuan (CNY; 1 CNY = 0.163 USD). We quantified the overall expenditure and financial burden and by subgroup (hospital type, age at diagnosis, sex, education, occupation, insurance type, household income, clinical stage, pathologic type, and therapeutic regimen). We then performed generalized linear modeling to determine the factors associated with overall expenditure.

RESULTS

A total of 2356 patients with a mean age of 57.4 years were included, 57.1% of whom were men; 13.9% of patients had stage I cancer; and the average previous-year household income was 54,525 CNY. The overall average direct expenditure per patient was estimated to be 67,408 CNY, and the expenditures for stage I, II, III, and IV disease were 56,099 CNY, 59,952 CNY, 67,292 CNY, and 82,729 CNY, respectively. Non-medical expenditure accounted for 8.3% of the overall expenditure. The 1-year out-of-pocket expenditure of a newly diagnosed patient was 32,649 CNY, which accounted for 59.9% of their previous-year household income and caused 75.0% of families to suffer an unmanageable financial burden. Univariate analysis showed that financial burden and overall expenditure differed in almost all subgroups (P < 0.05), except for sex. Multivariate analysis showed that patients who were treated in specialized hospitals and those who were diagnosed with adenocarcinoma or diagnosed at a later stage were likely to spend more, whereas those with a lower household income and those who underwent surgery spent less (all P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

For patients in China, direct expenditure for the diagnosis and treatment of CRC seemed catastrophic, and non-medical expenditure was non-ignorable. The financial burden varied among subgroups, especially among patients with different clinical stages of disease, which suggests that, in China, CRC screening might be cost-effective.

Expenditure of hospital care on cancer in China, from 2011 to 2015

Objective

A solid understanding of levels and trends of spending on cancer is important to evaluate whether our healthcare resources were wisely spent and to prioritize future resources for cancer treatment and prevention. However, studies on economic burden of cancers in China are scant and the results are inconsistent.

Methods

The Chinese hospital information database and nearly 350 million inpatient medical record data were used. As the ratios of cancer inpatient payments to total inpatient payments were mainly influenced by the grades and sites of hospitals, the estimates of payments of cancer inpatients in this study were stratified by hospital grades and provinces. Only the payments of cancer inpatients happened in grade 2, grade 3 and specialized cancer hospitals were included in the analyses. The total medical payments of cancers in China were estimated based on the ratios of outpatient payments to inpatient payments in specialized cancer hospitals.

Results

From 2011 to 2015, the payments of cancer inpatients in China have increased by 84.1% and the total inpatient payments reached 177.1 billion RMB in 2015, accounting for 4.3% of the total health expenditure in China. Based on the ratio of outpatient payments to inpatient payments, the total payments on cancer treatments in China were estimated to be 221.4 billion RMB in 2015. Among different cancer types, the highest payments were the treatment of trachea, bronchus and lung cancer. The major cancer inpatient payments (67.1% in 2015) spent in grade 3 general hospitals and this ratio increased continually from 2011 to 2015. The expenditure of cancer treatments also varies by region with the major expenditure in the eastern region of China.

Conclusions

This study estimated the total payments of cancer treatments in China and analyzed how the money was spent on cancer treatments in the recent 5 years, which would provide information for decision makings on the allocation of resources to service provisioning, prevention strategies, research funding, and assessing whether the economic burden of cancer is affordable to the governments.