Medical debt linked to higher late-stage cancer rates

Lung cancer showed the strongest absolute association, while prostate and breast cancer findings diverged from the broader pattern.

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In a national analysis of 2,958 US counties, researchers assessed county medical debt in collections in 2016 and cancer incidence from 2017 to 2021.
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Each 10-percentage-point increase in medical debt prevalence was associated with 5.15 additional late-stage lung cancer cases per 100,000 person-years.
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Higher medical debt prevalence was also associated with higher late-stage incidence of head and neck, colorectal, melanoma, cervical, kidney and renal pelvis, and bladder cancers.
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Late-stage breast cancer incidence was not associated with medical debt in the primary analysis, while higher debt was associated with lower recorded late-stage prostate cancer incidence.
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The ecological, cross-sectional study could not establish causality or determine whether people with medical debt were those diagnosed with cancer.

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