Rural-Urban Differences in Breast Cancer Surgical Delays in Medicare Beneficiaries.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Delays between breast cancer diagnosis and surgery are associated with worsened survival. Delays are more common in urban-residing patients, although factors specific to surgical delays among rural and urban patients are not well understood.

Methods

We used a 100% sample of fee-for-service Medicare claims during 2007-2014 to identify 238,491 women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer undergoing initial surgery and assessed whether they experienced biopsy-to-surgery intervals > 90 days. We employed multilevel regression to identify associations between delays and patient, regional, and surgeon characteristics, both in combined analyses and stratified by rurality of patient residence.

Results

Delays were more prevalent among urban patients (2.5%) than rur

SUBMITTER: Zipkin RJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9128633 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature