Racial disparities and medical care accessibility in cancer statistics.

Abstract

e18510 Background: Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. It continues to be the second leading cause of death in the United States despite all national efforts aiming to reduce cancer burden and mortality. Delays in medical care and subsequently age-appropriate screening leads to increased cancer burden which reflect on the overall prognosis. Medical care accessibility has been a challenge that is reported by approximately one third of the USA adult population. We aimed to identify health care disparities and its correlation with prevalence of cancer as well as delays in medical care due to financial challenges among Texas residents. Methods: We analyzed data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) 2017. We measured specific health care disparities including patient’s gender, age, race/ethnicity, body mass index (BMI), annual income, alcohol consumption, history of cancer, and delays in medical care due to financial burden, among respondents to the 2017 BRFSS survey from Texas. We computed the difference between our comparison groups using chi-square test for categorical variables and t-test for continuous variables. Results: We analyzed the differences in health care disparities among respondents with and without history of cancer. We report results from 11,165 adult respondents who reside in Texas, among which nine percent were diagnosed with cancer. We noticed a higher proportion of females than males among participants with a history of cancer (64% females p < 0.0001). Age did differ between both groups, with the majority of participants with cancer are aged 50 years and older. Interestingly, BMI did not differ between both groups (p-value = 0.6930). Although annual income did not differ between both groups, twelve percent of participants with cancer diagnosis suffered from delays in medical care due to financial burden. Racial disparities were statistically different between participants with or without cancer (p < .0001). Seventy seven percent of patients with cancer diagnosis were White and non-Hispanic with a cancer prevalence rate of 12% in that racial group. On a stratified analysis to compute the relationship between delayed medical care due to financial burden and cancer diagnosis among all ethnic groups, it was not statistically different (p-value = 0.1063). We showed that prevalence of cancer among multiracial participants and other racial minorities was higher in the group of participants who reported delays in medical care due to financial burden (11% versus 7%). Conclusions: Racial and ethnic disparities could affect accessibility to medical services. Race is a significant variable that is associated with cancer, with higher prevalence of cancer in White and non-Hispanic. Delayed medical care due to financial burden is more pronounced in multiracial population and racial minorities and should be targeted in future quality improvement projects.