Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH) Reports Findings in Cancer (Influence of health-insurance on treatment outcome of childhood cancer in Western Kenya): Cancer

2023 JUL 27 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- New research on Cancer is the subject of a report. According to news reporting out of Eldoret, Kenya, by NewsRx editors, research stated, “Few governments in low and middle-income countries (LMIC) have responded favourably to the international plea for Universal Health Coverage. Childhood cancer survival in LMIC is often below 20%.”

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH), “Limited health-insurance coverage may contribute to this poor survival. Our study explores the influence of health-insurance status on childhood cancer treatment outcomes in a Kenyan academic hospital. This was a retrospective medical records review of all children diagnosed with cancer at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital between 2010 and 2016. Socio-demographic and clinical data was collected using a structured data collection form. Fisher’s exact test, chi-squared test, Kaplan-Meier method, log-rank test and Cox proportional hazard model were used to evaluate relationships between treatment outcomes and patient characteristics. Study was approved by Institutional Research Ethics Committee. From 2010-2016, 879 children were newly diagnosed with cancer. Among 763 patients whose records were available, 28% abandoned treatment, 23% died and 17% had progressive/relapsed disease resulting in 32% event-free survival. In total 280 patients (37%) had health-insurance at diagnosis. After active enrolment during treatment, total health-insurance registration level reached 579 patients (76%). Treatment outcomes differed by health-insurance status (P < 0.001). The most likely treatment outcome in uninsured patients was death (49%), whereas in those with health-insurance at diagnosis and those who enrolled during treatment it was event-free survival (36% and 41% respectively). Overall survival (P < 0.001) and event-free survival (P < 0.001) were higher for insured versus uninsured patients. The hazard-ratio for treatment failure was 0.30 (95% CI:0.22-0.39; P< 0.001) for patients insured at diagnosis and 0.32 (95% CI:0.24-0.41; P< 0.001) for patients insured during treatment in relation to those without insurance. Our study highlights the need for Universal Health Coverage in LMIC. Children without health-insurance had significantly lower survival.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Childhood cancer treatment outcomes can be ameliorated by strategies that improve health-insurance access.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Influence of health-insurance on treatment outcome of childhood cancer in Western Kenya. Supportive Care in Cancer, 2023;31(8):467. Supportive Care in Cancer can be contacted at: Springer, One New York Plaza, Suite 4600, New York, Ny, United States. (Springer - www.springer.com; Supportive Care in Cancer - http://www.springerlink.com/content/0941-4355/)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Sandra Langat, Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH), Eldoret, Kenya. Additional authors for this research include Festus Njuguna, Gilbert Olbara, Hugo Martijn, Cenne Sieben, Moniek Haverkort, Dennis Njenga, Terry A. Vik, Gertjan Kaspers and Saskia Mostert.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-023-07913-1. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

Publisher contact information for the journal Supportive Care in Cancer is: Springer, One New York Plaza, Suite 4600, New York, Ny, United States.

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