Table 1.
Clinical and regional characteristics of newly diagnosed prostate cancer patients by urologist practice affiliation
| Characteristics | Urologist practice affiliation | p value* | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single specialty group | Multispecialty group | |||||
| 1–2 urologists |
Small (3–5) |
Medium (6–9) |
Large (10 or more) |
|||
| Urology group characteristics: | ||||||
| No. of urology groups | — | 332 | 113 | 110 | — | — |
| No. of urologists | 1711 | 1006 | 630 | 1488 | 1546 | — |
| No. of groups with IMRT ownership | 0 | 5 (2) | 13 (12) | 70 (64) | 0 | — |
| Patient characteristics: | ||||||
| No. of patients | 6905 | 4859 | 2981 | 7043 | 6376 | — |
| Age (yr) | <0.001 | |||||
| 66–69 | 1889 (27) | 1426 (29) | 939 (31) | 2133 (30) | 2143 (34) | |
| 70–74 | 2284 (33) | 1586 (33) | 1003 (34) | 2407 (34) | 2177 (34) | |
| 75–79 | 1576 (23) | 1128 (23) | 623 (21) | 1555 (22) | 1313 (21) | |
| 80–84 | 822 (12) | 493 (10) | 292 (10) | 673 (10) | 545 (9) | |
| 85+ | 334 (5) | 226 (5) | 124 (4) | 275 (4) | 198 (3) | |
| Race/ethnicity | <0.001 | |||||
| White | 6074 (88) | 4351 (90) | 2688 (90) | 6121 (87) | 5717 (90) | |
| Black | 591 (9) | 396 (8) | 222 (7) | 759 (11) | 465 (7) | |
| Other/unknown | 240 (3) | 112 (2) | 71 (2) | 163 (2) | 194 (3) | |
| Comorbidity | <0.001 | |||||
| 0 | 3976 (58) | 2819 (58) | 1852 (62) | 4173 (59) | 4022 (63) | |
| 1 | 1732 (25) | 1208 (25) | 697 (23) | 1756 (25) | 1448 (23) | |
| 2 | 669 (10) | 468 (10) | 249 (8) | 665 (9) | 511 (8) | |
| 3+ | 528 (8) | 364 (7) | 183 (6) | 449 (6) | 395 (6) | |
| Risk of noncancer mortality | <0.001 | |||||
| Low | 2056 (30) | 1569 (32) | 1089 (37) | 2482 (35) | 2529 (40) | |
| Intermediate | 2422 (35) | 1646 (34) | 1024 (34) | 2461 (35) | 2143 (34) | |
| High | 1581 (23) | 1063 (22) | 581 (19) | 1413 (20) | 1130 (18) | |
| Very high | 846 (12) | 581 (12) | 287 (10) | 687 (10) | 574 (9) | |
| Socioeconomic status (zip code level) | <0.001 | |||||
| Low | 2722 (39) | 1598 (33) | 930 (31) | 1879 (27) | 1833 (29) | |
| Medium | 2285 (33) | 1862 (38) | 1036 (35) | 2254 (32) | 2305 (36) | |
| High | 1898 (27) | 1399 (29) | 1015 (34) | 2910 (41) | 2238 (35) | |
| Residing in urban area | <0.001 | |||||
| Nonurban | 1989 (29) | 1018 (21) | 606 (20) | 585 (8) | 1587 (25) | |
| Urban | 4916 (71) | 3841 (79) | 2375 (80) | 6458 (92) | 4789 (75) | |
| Urologists per 100 000 | <0.001 | |||||
| Low (≤ 34) | 2803 (41) | 1675 (34) | 1121 (38) | 1663 (24) | 2119 (33) | |
| Intermediate | 2359 (34) | 1807 (37) | 980 (33) | 2194 (31) | 2086 (33) | |
| High (≥ 71) | 1743 (25) | 1377 (28) | 880 (30) | 3186 (45) | 2171 (34) | |
| Radiation oncologists per 100 000 | <0.001 | |||||
| Low (≤ 13) | 2714 (39) | 1767 (36) | 943 (32) | 1756 (25) | 2180 (34) | |
| Intermediate | 2420 (35) | 1760 (36) | 1055 (35) | 2211 (31) | 1995 (31) | |
| High (≥ 29) | 1771 (26) | 1332 (27) | 983 (33) | 3076 (44) | 2201 (35) | |
| Hospital beds per 100 000 | <0.001 | |||||
| Low (≤ 3340) | 2667 (39) | 1702 (35) | 955 (32) | 2086 (30) | 1989 (31) | |
| Intermediate | 2442 (35) | 1696 (35) | 1011 (34) | 2110 (30) | 2205 (35) | |
| High (≥ 6342) | 1796 (26) | 1461 (30) | 1015 (34) | 2847 (40) | 2182 (34) | |
| Medicare managed care penetration | <0.001 | |||||
| Low (≤ 13.5%) | 2421 (35) | 1854 (38) | 1154 (39) | 1762 (25) | 2138 (34) | |
| Intermediate | 2107 (31) | 1514 (31) | 1031 (35) | 2674 (38) | 2046 (32) | |
| High (≥ 25.0%) | 2377 (34) | 1491 (31) | 796 (27) | 2607 (37) | 2192 (34) | |
IMRT = intensity-modulated radiation therapy.
*
The p values are from chi-square tests of independence comparing the distribution of each variable across all different categories of group size.