Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

Financial toxicity: a common problem affecting patient care and health

Nature Reviews Disease Primers volume 8, Article number: 7 (2022) Cite this article

Subjects

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

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Contributors, aspects, modifiers and potential effects of financial toxicity of medical care.

References

  1. 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).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Valero-Elizondo, J. et al. Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, cancer, and financial toxicity among adults in the United States. JACC CardioOncol. 3, 236–246 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. 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).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. 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).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. 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).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. 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).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Bradley, C. J., Yabroff, K. R. & Shih, Y. T. A coordinated policy approach to address medical financial toxicity. JAMA Oncol. 7, 1761–1762 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Patel, M. R. et al. A scoping review of behavioral interventions addressing medical financial hardship. Popul. Health Manag. 24, 710–721 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. 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).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. 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).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

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

  1. Division of Preventive Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA

    Maria Pisu

  2. O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA

    Maria Pisu

  3. Center for Innovation in Health Equity Research, Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN, USA

    Michelle Y. Martin

Authors
  1. Maria Pisu
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Michelle Y. Martin
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maria Pisu.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

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

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Version of record:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41572-022-00341-1

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing