Study Finds Health Care, Hardship Link

Seriously ill patients who are causing their families economic hardship are more likely to forgo costly life-sustaining treatment and seek comfort care instead, a study said. Examining 3,000 patients, the study said those with families suffering hardship were 30% more likely to prefer comfort care than those with families without hardship. The study was published in the current issue of the journal Archives of Internal Medicine. Lead author Kenneth Covinsky, assistant professor of medicine at Case Western University in Cleveland, said such costs as nonskilled home care and income lost by family are often not measured and should be considered.