Table 3.

Health Care Utilization in Cancer Survivors and Individuals without a Cancer History, 2008–2011 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey

		Percentage with service					Mean service use among individuals with service
		Cancer survivor		No cancer history		Wald F p-value	Cancer survivor			No cancer history			Wald F p-value
		Wted %	Adj %*	Wted %	Adj %*		n	Wted Mean	Pred. Marg.*	n	Wted Mean	Pred. Marg.*
Ages 18–64 years	Emergency room visits	18.6	16.7	12.3	12.4	<.0001	677	1.5	1.5	9,340	1.4	1.4	0.0037
	Ambulatory surgery	25.7	18.4	9.7	9.9	<.0001	751	1.9	1.8	5,757	1.5	1.5	<.0001
	Hospitalizations/ total length of stay	13.4	10.1	6.1	6.2	<.0001	467	8.7	7.5	4,591	5.3	5.4	0.0028
	Chemotherapy	3.9	3.2	0.0	0.0	<.0001	145	8.5	8.5
	Radiation therapy	3.3	2.2	0.1	0.1	<.0001	98	16.1	15.6
	Other provider office-based and hospital outpatient visits**	89.0	80.4	68.4	69.0	<.0001	2,912	11.1	9.2	46,561	6.9	7.0	<.0001
Ages 65+ years	Emergency room visits	20.6	19.7	16.9	17.2	0.0038	728	1.5	1.5	1,942	1.4	1.4	0.0303
	Ambulatory surgeries	35.2	34.1	22.4	22.7	<.0001	1,071	2.3	2.2	2,160	1.9	1.9	0.0011
	Hospitalizations/ total length of stay	22.8	21.7	15.6	15.9	<.0001	742	9.8	9.7	1,682	8.5	8.5	0.1369
	Chemotherapy	4.0	4.2	0.1	0.1	<.0001	141	9.0	8.9
	Radiation therapy	2.4	2.4	0.3	0.3	<.0001	86	16.8	16.8
	Other provider office-based and hospital outpatient visits**	95.7	95.1	90.1	90.5	<.0001	3,182	13.9	13.6	10,133	10.6	10.6	<.0001

NOTE: Percentage with service calculated among all cancer survivors and individuals without a cancer history ages 18–64 and 65+ years. Estimates for mean service use for chemotherapy and radiation therapy not reported for individuals without a cancer history due to small sample size.

^*Predicted marginals from a regression model with age, number of comorbid conditions, educational attainment and gender as covariates

^**Hospital outpatient visits include MEPS zero-night inpatient visits