Lower-extremity injuries can have serious and wide-ranging impact on patients’ lives. What hasn’t been fully understood, note O’Hara et al. in a new study, are the financial implications for patients.
“Previous research,” they write, “has estimated that over one-half of patients with orthopaedic trauma experience financial distress after the injury. However, it is unknown what proportion of patients lived under financial distress before the injury and, therefore, the causal effect of the injury on financial distress.”
Access their study at JBJS.org along with a video abstract of their findings:
This prospective cohort study included 200 adult patients with a surgically treated fracture of the lower extremity (median patient age, 42 years; 56% male). The study used patients’ 2-week recall of their financial circumstances prior to their injury, allowing for a quasi-experiment design. Financial distress was assessed with use of a self-reported questionnaire, while the LIMB-Q Financial Impact Score was used to assess financial “toxicity.” Factors associated with new financial distress were analyzed using multinomial logistic regression.
Findings
- Financial distress was experienced by 2 of 5 patients prior to injury. After injury, the prevalence of financial distress increased to 3 of 5 patients.
- Patients working before their injury and earning less than $70,000/year were at higher risk of new financial distress post-injury.
The authors suggest priority access to interventions for these at-risk patients, “such as those provided by social workers and case managers, to help to mitigate this added burden.”
Read the full study: Determining If Post-Injury Financial Distress Was Preexisting or Injury-Induced. A Prospective Cohort Study of Patients with Lower-Extremity Trauma
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I have not read the paper but will do so to determine how much of the added financial stress was secondary to out of pocket medical expenses