Impact of racial and marital status on health services utilization among veterans with terminal cancer.

Abstract

e19639 Background: Little is known about the association of socio-demographic factors with health services utilization (HSU) for patients with terminal cancer receiving palliative care. The objectives of this study were to evaluate for race or marital status associated variations in HSU among Veterans with terminal cancer. Methods: In an IRB approved protocol, 103 advanced cancer patients receiving palliative care in the Section of Hematology Oncology at a VA Medical Center, but not hospice, were followed every 4-6 weeks from the start of palliative care to death from 2000-2002. This study sample consisted of a subset of 39 pts who received palliative care for at least 24 weeks. Their charts were retrospectively reviewed for measures of health system utilization (HSU), including total length of hospital days, number of admissions, number of clinic visits and emergency room (ER) visits. ANOVA and Chi-square tests were used to explore for potential disparities of HSU across race or marital status. Results: Overall, the subset consisted of 17 Caucasians, 21 African American (AA), and 1 “other” by race. Among them, 21 were married, 7 were divorced, 6 were widowed, 4 never married and 1 had unknown marital status. The majority of patients had prostate cancer (39.47%) or lung cancer (28.95%). Mean total number of inpatient days was 23.6 days (SD=23), mean number of admissions was 2.9(SD=2.5), mean number of clinic visits was 27 (SD=25), and ER visits was 1.3(SD=1.8) per patient. Mean total hospital days were the longer for AA (25) compared to Caucasian (17.7) (p<0.01); the one pt from “other” had a total of 94 hospital days. The average number of ER visits was 0.48 for Caucasian, 2.0 for AA and 0 for other (p<0.05). Total number of inpatient days was longest for those who were never married (33.8 days), less for those who were married (26.0), divorced (12.7) or widowed (9.3) (p>0.05). A similar trend was found for clinic visits (NS). Conclusions: The pilot study identified racial but not marital status-associated variations in HSU among terminally ill cancer patients. These findings have implications for cost of care and should be confirmed in larger studies in our Veterans including caregivers. Funded in part by Project Death in America