Lifetime Costs of Surviving Cancer—A Queensland Study (COS-Q): Protocol of a Large Healthcare Data Linkage Study

Katharina M. D. Merollini, Louisa G. Gordon, Joanne F. Aitken and Michael G. Kimlin
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Katharina M. D. Merollini: Sunshine Coast Health Institute, School of Health and Sport Sciences, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore, QLD 4558, Australia
Louisa G. Gordon: QIMR Berghofer, Medical Research Institute, Herston, QLD 4006, Australia
Joanne F. Aitken: Cancer Council Queensland, Fortitude Valley, QLD 4006, Australia
Michael G. Kimlin: Sunshine Coast Health Institute, School of Health and Sport Sciences, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore, QLD 4558, Australia

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 8, 1-16

Abstract: Australia-wide, there are currently more than one million cancer survivors. There are over 32 million world-wide. A trend of increasing cancer incidence, medical innovations and extended survival places growing pressure on healthcare systems to manage the ongoing and late effects of cancer treatment. There are no published studies of the long-term health service use and cost of cancer survivorship on a population basis in Australia. All residents of the state of Queensland, Australia, diagnosed with a first primary malignancy from 1997–2015 formed the cohort of interest. State and national healthcare databases are linked with cancer registry records to capture all health service utilization and healthcare costs for 20 years (or death, if this occurs first), starting from the date of cancer diagnosis, including hospital admissions, emergency presentations, healthcare costing data, Medicare services and pharmaceuticals. Data analyses include regression and economic modeling. We capture the whole journey of health service contact and estimate long-term costs of all cancer patients diagnosed and treated in Queensland by linking routinely collected state and national healthcare data. Our results may improve the understanding of lifetime health effects faced by cancer survivors and estimate related healthcare costs. Research outcomes may inform policy and facilitate future planning for the allocation of healthcare resources according to the burden of disease.

Keywords: cancer survivors; health service use; costs and cost analysis; long-term outcomes; economic models; health economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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