Table 1.
Patient Demographic, Clinical, and Diagnosing Facility Characteristics Stratified by Travel Distance
| Characteristic | Travel Distance |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Short (< 12.5 miles) |
Intermediate (12.5-49.9 miles) |
Long (≥ 50 miles) |
||||
| No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | |
| No. of patients | 215,561 | 69,296 | 11,617 | |||
| Demographic characteristics | ||||||
| Age, years | ||||||
| Median | 69 | 67 | 67 | |||
| ± SD | 13.7 | 13.4 | 13.2 | |||
| ≤ 40 | 2.2 | 2.7 | 2.7 | |||
| 40-49 | 7.0 | 8.4 | 7.4 | |||
| 50-59 | 16.8 | 19.2 | 18.0 | |||
| 60-69 | 21.7 | 25.4 | 26.2 | |||
| 70-79 | 26.4 | 25.3 | 26.2 | |||
| ≥ 80 | 25.9 | 19.0 | 19.6 | |||
| Male sex | 46.7 | 50.0 | 50.7 | |||
| Race/ethnicity | ||||||
| White | 76.1 | 85.0 | 84.7 | |||
| Black | 14.5 | 8.9 | 7.5 | |||
| Hispanic | 5.2 | 3.2 | 4.2 | |||
| Other | 3.0 | 1.7 | 2.1 | |||
| Missing | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.5 | |||
| Insurance status | ||||||
| Private | 33.1 | 36.2 | 30.6 | |||
| Medicare | 56.9 | 53.6 | 56.9 | |||
| Medicaid | 4.4 | 3.7 | 4.3 | |||
| Other | 0.5 | 0.8 | 1.1 | |||
| Uninsured | 3.4 | 3.8 | 4.4 | |||
| Missing | 1.7 | 1.9 | 2.8 | |||
| Income, $* | ||||||
| ≥ 46,000 | 41.6 | 31.4 | 9.1 | |||
| Missing | 1.1 | 1.3 | 1.7 | |||
| Education* | ||||||
| ≥ 29% without HS education | 38.2 | 23.8 | 14.0 | |||
| Missing | 1.1 | 1.3 | 1.7 | |||
| Rurality | ||||||
| Metropolitan | 91.8 | 65.7 | 25.5 | |||
| Suburban | 6.2 | 28.3 | 57.3 | |||
| Rural | 0.1 | 4.6 | 15.9 | |||
| Missing | 1.9 | 1.3 | 1.3 | |||
| Clinical characteristics | ||||||
| Comorbidity index | ||||||
| 0 | 69.7 | 70.7 | 70.0 | |||
| 1 | 22.1 | 21.4 | 21.5 | |||
| ≥ 2 | 8.2 | 7.9 | 8.5 | |||
| AJCC stage | ||||||
| I | 23.2 | 23.5 | 21.5 | |||
| II | 28.4 | 27.7 | 27.6 | |||
| III | 27.6 | 27.8 | 27.2 | |||
| IV | 20.9 | 21.1 | 23.7 | |||
| Facility characteristics | ||||||
| Hospital type | ||||||
| Academic/research | 22.8 | 21.2 | 33.1 | |||
| Comprehensive community cancer center | 53.4 | 55.4 | 53.2 | |||
| Community cancer center | 22.1 | 22.0 | 12.9 | |||
| Other | 1.7 | 1.4 | 0.8 | |||
| Region | ||||||
| Northeast | 7.7 | 4.7 | 2.1 | |||
| Atlantic | 17.2 | 9.5 | 4.5 | |||
| Southeast | 20.2 | 23.8 | 14.9 | |||
| Great Lakes | 21.0 | 18.4 | 10.5 | |||
| South | 5.4 | 11.4 | 12.9 | |||
| Midwest | 6.5 | 9.0 | 21.6 | |||
| West | 6.8 | 11.0 | 17.4 | |||
| Mountain | 3.4 | 3.4 | 8.2 | |||
| Pacific | 11.7 | 8.8 | 8.1 | |||
| Treating/reporting status† | 97.7 | 97.6 | 97.2 | |||
NOTE. Column percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding.
Abbreviations: AJCC, American Joint Committee on Cancer; HS, high school; SD, standard deviation.
*
Based on Census 2000 data. For income, data represent the percentage of participants whose area of residence had a median household income ≥ $46,000. For education, data represent the percentage of participants whose area of residence had ≥ 29% adults who did not attain a high school education.
†
Hospital where the patient was diagnosed (ie, reporting facility) is the same as the treating hospital.