Geographic Variation in Cystoscopy Rates for Suspected Bladder Cancer between Female and Male Medicare Beneficiaries.

ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVE:To assess geographic variation in cystoscopy rates among women vs men with suspected bladder cancer, lending insight into gender-specific differences in cystoscopic evaluation. METHODS:We conducted a cross-sectional study of all fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries within 306 Hospital Referral Regions (HRRs) who received care in 2014. For each HRR, we calculated the age- and race-adjusted cystoscopy rate for women and men as our primary outcome. The rate was the number of beneficiaries who underwent cystoscopy for bladder cancer symptoms (using procedure and ICD-9 diagnosis codes) divided by all beneficiaries in the HRR. We used the coefficient of variation to compare relative variability of cystoscopy rates. RESULTS:Overall, 173,551 women (n = 14.8 million) and 286,090 men (n

SUBMITTER: Han DS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6295281 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature