Databases are a powerful tool for plastic surgery outcomes research. It is critically important to understand their benefits and limitations when designing research projects or interpreting studies whose data have been drawn from them. For plastic surgeons, National Surgical Quality Improvement Project has a greater number of publications, but Tracking Operations and Outcomes for Plastic Surgeons Program is the most applicable database for plastic surgery research.
BACKGROUND:
Financial toxicity (FT) depicts the burden of cancer treatment costs and is associated with lower quality of life and survival in breast cancer patients. We examined the relationship between geospatial location, represented by rurality and Area Deprivation Index (ADI), and risk of FT.
STUDY DESIGN:
A single-institution, cross-sectional study was performed on adult female surgical breast cancer patients using survey data retrospectively collected between January 2018 and June 2019. Chart reviews were used to obtain patient information, and FT was identified using the COmprehensive Score for Financial Toxicity questionnaire, which is a validated instrument. Patients’ home addresses were used to determine rurality using the Rural Urban Continuum Codes and linked to national ADI score. ADI was analyzed in tertiles for univariate statistical analyses, and as a continuous variable to develop multivariable logistic regression models to evaluate the independent associations of geospatial location with FT.
RESULTS:
A total of 568 surgical breast cancer patients were included. Univariate analyses found significant differences across ADI tertiles with respect to race/ethnicity, marital status, insurance type, education, and rurality. In multivariable analysis, advanced cancer stage (odds ratio [OR] 2.26, 95% CI 1.15 to 4.44) and higher ADI (OR 1.012, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.02) were associated with worsening odds of FT. Increasing age (continuous) (OR 0.976, 95% CI 0.96 to 0.99), married status (vs unmarried) (OR 0.46, 95% CI 0.30 to 0.70), and receipt of bilateral mastectomy (OR 0.56, 95% CI 0.32 to 0.96) were protective of FT.
CONCLUSIONS:
FT was significantly associated with areas of greater socioeconomic deprivation as measured by the ADI. However, in adjusted analyses, rurality was not significantly associated with FT. ADI can be useful for preoperative screening of at-risk populations and the targeted deployment of community-based interventions to alleviate FT.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.