Equity of travel to access surgery and radiation therapy for lung cancer in New Zealand.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

Centralisation of lung cancer treatment can improve outcomes, but may result in differential access to care for those who do not reside within treatment centres.

Methods

We used national-level cancer registration and health care access data and used Geographic Information Systems (GIS) methods to determine the distance and time to access first relevant surgery and first radiation therapy among all New Zealanders diagnosed with lung cancer (2007-2019; N = 27,869), and compared these outcomes between ethnic groups. We also explored the likelihood of being treated at a high-, medium-, or low-volume hospital. Analysis involved both descriptive and adjusted logistic regression modelling.

Results

We found that Māori tend to need to travel further (with longer travel

SUBMITTER: Gurney J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10879218 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature