Table 2.
Patient Characteristics
| Characteristic | Medicare-Linked Patients (N = 1,401) | Patients Without Medicare Link (n = 1,172) | P* | Characteristic | Medicare-Linked Patients (N = 1,401) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. or Median | % or Range | No. or Median | % or Range | No. or Median | % | |||
| Demographic and treatment factors | Baseline comorbid diseases | |||||||
| Age, years (median or range) | 72 | 65-92 | 72 | 65-89 | .65 | Diabetes with chronic complications | 110 | 8 |
| Race | .08 | Diabetes with or without chronic complications | 368 | 26 | ||||
| Asian | 22 | 2% | 18 | 2% | Hypothyroidism | 231 | 16 | |
| Black | 129 | 9% | 74 | 6% | Peripheral vascular disease | 130 | 9 | |
| Native | 7 | < 1% | 3 | < 1% | Autoimmune diseases* | 79 | 6 | |
| Unknown | 20 | 1% | 18 | 2% | Sjögren’s syndrome | 12 | < 1 | |
| White | 1,223 | 87% | 1,059 | 90% | Lupus | 2 | < 1 | |
| Ethnicity | .05 | Rheumatoid arthritis | 49 | 3 | ||||
| Not Hispanic | 1,371 | 98% | 1,132 | 97% | Scleroderma | 27 | 2 | |
| Hispanic | 30 | 2% | 40 | 3% | Mixed connective tissue disease | 0 | — | |
| Sex | .01 | Dermatomyositis | 0 | — | ||||
| Female | 388 | 28% | 377 | 32% | Polymyositis | 0 | — | |
| Male | 1,013 | 72% | 795 | 68% | Vasculitis | 0 | — | |
| Time of initial registration | < .001 | Giant cell arteritis | 0 | — | ||||
| < 2004 | 588 | 42% | 294 | 25% | HIV | 0 | — | |
| 2004 or later | 813 | 58% | 878 | 75% | Varicella zoster | 37 | 3 | |
| Kind of taxane | < .001 | Hypertension | 956 | 68 | ||||
| Docetaxel | 803 | 57% | 486 | 41% | Hypercholesterolemia | 673 | 48 | |
| Paclitaxel | 598 | 43% | 686 | 59% | ||||
| Planned time receiving treatment according to protocol, days (median or range) | 126 | 42-252 | 126 | 42-252 | .002 | |||
| Observed time on treatment, days (median or range) | 108 | 1-1,776 | 105 | 1-864 | .01 | |||
| Type of cancer | < .001 | |||||||
| Bladder | 31 | 2% | 15 | 1% | ||||
| Breast | 175 | 12% | 116 | 10% | ||||
| Head & neck | 51 | 4% | 9 | 1% | ||||
| Lung | 460 | 33% | 639 | 55% | ||||
| Ovarian | 33 | 2% | 6 | 1% | ||||
| Prostate | 651 | 46% | 387 | 33% | ||||
| Cancer stage/high risk | .001 | |||||||
| Low | 781 | 56% | 577 | 49% | ||||
| High | 620 | 44% | 594 | 51% | ||||
| Total time of Medicare coverage prior to registration, years (median or range) | 3.7 | 0.5-13 | — | — | ||||
| Platinum therapy as part of protocol | 483 | 34% | 645 | 55% | < .001 | |||
| Total time of Medicare coverage prior to registration, years (median or range) | 3.7 | 0.5-13 | — | — | ||||
*
P value uses t tests for continuous variables and χ2 tests for categorical variables to compare those patients linked to Medicare claims data with those patients not linked to Medicare claims data.