What can hospital emergency admissions prior to cancer diagnosis tell us about socio-economic inequalities in cancer diagnosis? Evidence from population-based data in England.

ABSTRACT:

Background

More deprived cancer patients are at higher risk of Emergency Presentation (EP) with most studies pointing to lower symptom awareness and increased comorbidities to explain those patterns. With the example of colon cancer, we examine patterns of hospital emergency admissions (HEAs) history in the most and least deprived patients as a potential precursor of EP.

Methods

We analysed the rates of hospital admissions and their admission codes (retrieved from Hospital Episode Statistics) in the two years preceding cancer diagnosis by sex, deprivation and route to diagnosis (EP, non-EP). To select the conditions (grouped admission codes) that best predict emergency admission, we adapted the purposeful variable selection to mixed-effects logistic regression.

Results

SUBMITTER: Exarchakou A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11182764 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature