Imagine you’re in the hospital with cancer. Would you rather spend everything you have to potentially live longer, or forgo the costly medical treatment?
Your answer might be influenced by your race.
A study previously reported in the journal Cancer finds that 80 percent of African-Americans were willing to spend all their resources to extend life, but for white people the number is 54 percent.
When asked how much longer they think they have to live, patients picked one of these answers: less than five years, more than five years, “I don’t know,” and “In God’s hands.”
Those who answered “In God’s hands” are perhaps the most religious, the study author said, and this group was also by far the most likely to exhaust finances on life-prolonging treatment.
However, even within this group of religious individuals willing to spend more on treatment – Blacks were still more likely than whites to spend.
The study authors cite research suggesting that African-Americans have a culture “of overcoming and struggling,” and are therefore more willing “to exhaust personal financial resources to extend life.”
Besides race, other factors affected whether individuals were willing to spend everything on potentially life-extending health care.
For example, those who are married, those who have multiple dependents, those who are older, or those who believe they have less than five years to live anyway were all less likely to spend on potentially life-extending treatments for themselves.
The researchers hope this information will be used by doctors to better understand patients during discussions about end-of-life care.
Source: CNN’s The Chart
