The Impact of Socioeconomic Crisis on Cancer Patient Outcomes in Lebanon, 2018-2020

This study tracked over 600 cancer patients in a Lebanese drug access program to see how the country’s economic collapse, which began in 2019, affected their chances of survival, even though the program itself kept covering their medication costs throughout the crisis. Patients who started treatment before the crisis hit were more likely to survive than those who started after, showing that poverty and instability can hurt health outcomes even when medication stays affordable and available.

• Patients enrolled before Lebanon’s 2019 economic crisis had meaningfully better survival than those enrolled after, even though the same access program covered their medication throughout.
• Patients living in areas with higher poverty levels in 2019 had close to three times the mortality rate of those in less impoverished areas, even after accounting for other factors.
• Because medication access didn’t change during the crisis, the drop in survival points to other poverty-driven barriers, like difficulty getting to appointments, stress, and nutrition, rather than the drugs themselves.
• Reinforces that access programs alone can’t fully protect patient outcomes during a national crisis. Pairing medication access with broader poverty-reduction and support efforts may be essential during periods of economic instability.