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AbstractBackground: Some cancer survivors experience medical financial hardship, which may reduce their food security. The purpose of this study was to explore whether medical financial hardship is related to food security among cancer survivors. Methods: The study was based on cross-sectional data from the 2020 National Health Interview Survey. We used ordinal logistic regression to examine the relationship between material, psychological, and behavioral medical financial hardship and household food security (i.e., high, marginal, low, or very low) among individuals aged ≥ 18 years who reported a cancer diagnosis from a health professional (N=4,130). Results: The majority of the sample reported high household food security (88.5%), with 4.8% reporting marginal, 3.6% reporting low, and 3.1% reporting very low household food security. In the adjusted model, the odds of being in a lower food security category were higher for cancer survivors who had problems paying or were unable to pay their medical bills compared to those who did not (OR=1.73, 95% CI, 1.06-2.82, p=0.027), who were very worried about paying their medical bills compared to those who were not at all worried (OR=2.88, 95% CI, 1.64-5.07, p
Hallgren et al. (Mon,) studied this question.