Systematic Review of Health Insurance and Survival Among Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Patients.
Tara Martin, Rhonda Winegar, Zhaoli Liu
✦ AI-curated · Sources linked
In 30 seconds
This systematic review examined associations between insurance status and cancer survival among adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with cancer in the United States. It included 10 peer-reviewed studies published between 2018 and 2024, encompassing 468,583 patients. Across multiple cancer types, AYAs with Medicaid/public insurance or no insurance generally had poorer survival outcomes than those with private insurance. Some associations varied by age, including for lymphoma. The review also identified persistent challenges in accurately assessing and categorizing insurance status, and concluded that insurance status is associated with both short- and long-term cancer outcomes.
Key findings
- The review included 10 studies encompassing 468,583 AYAs with cancer; 60.1% were female.
- Across multiple cancer types, Medicaid/publicly insured and uninsured AYAs generally had poorer survival outcomes than privately insured AYAs.
- Some insurance–survival associations appeared age-dependent, including those reported for lymphoma.
Why it matters
Insurance status may mark important differences in survival among AYAs with cancer, a population identified in the review as having the highest proportion of uninsured individuals. Recognising these associations can inform consideration of access and policy questions, while the reported difficulties in classifying insurance status underscore the need for careful interpretation of comparisons.
What to keep in mind
The review reports challenges in accurately assessing and categorizing insurance status. Its findings are based on associations in included studies and do not establish that insurance status causes survival differences.