Estimating Costs of Care Attributable to Cancer: Does the Choice of Comparison Group Matter?

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To compare alternative strategies for specifying cancer-free control cohorts for estimating cancer-attributable costs of care.

Data source, study design, data extraction

Secondary data analysis of Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results data linked to Medicare claims among patients diagnosed with colorectal, lung, breast, and prostate cancers, 2007-2011. We estimated cancer-attributable costs using three alternative reference cohorts: (1) noncancer Medicare patients individually matched by demographic characteristics, (2) noncancer patients individually matched on demographic factors and comorbidity score, (3) cancer patients as their own control, using prediagnosis costs.

Principal findings

Among 44,266 colorectal, 61,584 lung, 55,921 breast, and 67,733

SUBMITTER: Chen AB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6056589 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature