Recent Studies from American Cancer Society Add New Data to COVID-19 (Unemployment and Cancer Screening: Baseline Estimates To Inform Health Care Delivery In the Context of Covid-19 Economic Distress): Coronavirus – COVID-19

2021 DEC 06 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at NewsRx COVID-19 Daily -- Investigators publish new report on Coronavirus - COVID-19. According to news reporting out of Atlanta, Georgia, by NewsRx editors, research stated, “During the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, US unemployment rates rose to historic highs, and they remain nearly double those of prepandemic levels. Employers are the most common source of health insurance among nonelderly adults.”

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from American Cancer Society, “Thus, job loss may lead to a loss of health insurance and reduce access to cancer screening. This study examined associations between unemployment, health insurance, and cancer screening to inform the pandemic’s potential impacts on early cancer detection. Up-to-date and past-year breast, cervical, colorectal, and prostate cancer screening prevalences were computed for nonelderly respondents (aged <65 years) with 2000-2018 National Health Interview Survey data. Multivariable logistic regression models with marginal probabilities were used to estimate unemployed-versus-employed unadjusted and adjusted prevalence ratios. Unemployed adults (2000-2018) were 4 times more likely to lack insurance than employed adults (41.4% vs 10.0%; P< .001). Unemployed adults had a significantly lower up-to-date prevalence of screening for cervical cancer (78.5% vs 86.2%; P< .001), breast cancer (67.8% vs 77.5%; P< .001), colorectal cancer (41.9 vs 48.5%; P< .001), and prostate cancer (25.4% vs 36.4%; P< .001). These differences were eliminated after accounting for health insurance coverage. Unemployment was adversely associated with up-to-date cancer screening, and this was fully explained by a lack of health insurance.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Ensuring the continuation of health insurance coverage after job loss may mitigate the pandemic’s economic distress and future economic downturns’ impact on cancer screening.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Unemployment and Cancer Screening: Baseline Estimates To Inform Health Care Delivery In the Context of Covid-19 Economic Distress. Cancer, 2021. Cancer can be contacted at: Wiley, 111 River St, Hoboken 07030-5774, NJ, USA. (Wiley-Blackwell - http://www.wiley.com/; Cancer - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1097-0142)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Stacey A. Fedewa, American Cancer Society, Off Canc Res & Implementat, Surveillance & Hlth Equ Sci, 250 Williams St, Atlanta, GA 30303, United States. Additional authors for this research include K. Robin Yabroff, Priti Bandi, Nigar Nargis, Zhiyuan Zheng, Ahmedin Jemal, Robert A. Smith and Jeffrey Drope.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1002/cncr.33966. 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.

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