Family and out-of-pocket costs for women with breast cancer.
Other than loss of income to family members, little attention has been given to costs incurred by women with breast cancer and their families. Informal costs, such as the family labor for patient care and nonreimbursed out-of-pocket expenditures to care for the patient with breast cancer, need to be considered. Informal costs of women who survived for at least 3 months after the observation are compared with informal costs of a group of patients who died during the subsequent 3 months. Data for this longitudinal descriptive study were obtained from a convenience sample of 62 women with new or recurrent breast cancer. Data were collected at intake and at 3-month intervals across the 6-month observation. Data are presented for the out-of-pocket costs, primary family care-giver and "other" family labor costs, and total costs. Considering all costs, the 3-month average was $2,720 (SD, $3314) for the survivors and $7905 (SD, $5448) for the decedents. Regressions of costs on predictors were performed; survivors' status and patient dependencies in activities of daily living were the only significant predictors. Family care costs need to be considered along with the formal and direct reimbursable medical costs as an essential component of breast cancer care cost.