Cancer survivors without health insurance have greater current smoking rates

the Oncology Nurse Advisor take:

Cancer survivors without health insurance have substantially greater current smoking rates than those with health insurance, a recent study published in the Journal of Cancer Survivorship: Research and Practice has shown.

For the cross-sectional study, researchers sought to examine the prevalence of current smoking, and to evaluate the association of both health insurance and access to care with smoking cessation among cancer survivors. 

Researchers analyzed data from 18,896 cancer survivors who completed the 2009 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey. Respondents were mostly 45 to 64 years of age, white, and female.

Results showed that the prevalence of current smoking was 40.9% among cancer survivors without health insurance compared with 19.5% of those with health insurance.

Researchers also found that cancer survivors with no health insurance had a 2-fold greater odds of not achieving smoking cessation versus those with health insurance.

Those who experienced health care access-related problems despite having health insurance had a 60-80% gold greater odds of not achieving smoking cessation compared with cancer survivors without access problems.

The findings suggest that "smoking cessation needs to be recognized as a crucial component of preventive care for cancer survivors."