Table 1.
Patient Sociodemographic, Geographic, and Comorbid Characteristics by Hospice Use
| Hospice use | Cases of hospice use (N = 5418) | p | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Characteristics | |||
| Age at diagnosis, years | |||
| 66–69 | 39.23% | 357 | <0.0001 |
| 70–74 | 43.02% | 515 | |
| 75–79 | 48.72% | 588 | |
| 80–84 | 55.12% | 592 | |
| 85 or older | 57.09% | 588 | |
| Race and ethnicitya | |||
| Asian | 31.11% | 42 | <0.0001 |
| Black | 44.61% | 298 | |
| Hispanic | 42.99% | 95 | |
| Non-Hispanic White | 50.25% | 2199 | |
| Marital status | |||
| Ever married | 51.61% | 1520 | <0.0001 |
| Married | 44.05% | 711 | |
| Single | 45.26% | 277 | |
| Unmarried/unknown | 53.44% | 132 | |
| Percentage of low-income residents above median | |||
| No | 48.78% | 2626 | 0.3001 |
| Yes | 40.00% | 14 | |
| No. of comorbiditiesb | |||
| 0 | 48.56% | 1550 | 0.6816 |
| 1 | 49.82% | 565 | |
| 2 | 48.08% | 525 | |
| Patient residencec characteristics | |||
| Metro ≥1M | 47.25% | 1435 | 0.0049 |
| Metro 250K–1M | 51.40% | 514 | |
| Metro ≤250K | 54.70% | 291 | |
| Urban, adjacent to metro >20K | 43.35% | 88 | |
| Urban, not adjacent to metro >20K | 45.37% | 49 | |
| Urban, adjacent to metro <20K | 53.16% | 143 | |
| Urban, not adjacent to metro <20K | 43.16% | 82 | |
| Rural, adjacent to metro <2500 | 54.76% | 23 | |
| Rural, not adjacent to metro <2500 | 40.54% | 15 | |
| State of residenced | |||
| California | 43.77% | 608 | <0.0001 |
| Connecticut | 42.50% | 153 | |
| Detroit | 51.13% | 227 | |
| Georgia | 59.12% | 308 | |
| Hawaii | 34.62% | 18 | |
| Iowa | 63.09% | 188 | |
| Kentucky | 49.02% | 200 | |
| Louisiana | 52.07% | 201 | |
| New Jersey | 45.18% | 502 | |
| New Mexico | 53.40% | 55 | |
| Seattle | 45.93% | 113 | |
| Utah | 67.00% | 67 | |
| Year of diagnosis of breast cancer | |||
| 2002 | 52.04% | 344 | <0.0001 |
| 2003 | 50.15% | 325 | |
| 2004 | 53.19% | 367 | |
| 2005 | 55.64% | 385 | |
| 2006 | 51.97% | 357 | |
| 2007 | 45.06% | 315 | |
| 2008 | 44.99% | 305 | |
| 2009 | 36.50% | 242 | |
Note: α = 0.05. Bolded values indicate statistical significance.
Race: American Indian/Alaska Native (n = 12), or unknown (n = 6) were not reported due to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) cell size suppression policy. Asian population included Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander.
Comorbidities measured the following chronic conditions: chronic obstruction pulmonary disease, cerebrovascular disease, congestive heart failure, diabetes, dementia, myocardial infarction, peripheral vascular disease, peptic ulcer disease, paralysis, renal disease, rheumatologic disease.
Rural/urban area characteristics of patient residence was based on Area Resource File that is available in the Patient Entitlement and Diagnosis Summary Files (PEDSF) file, including counties of metro areas of 1 million population or more, counties of metro areas of 250,000–1,000,000 population, counties in metro areas of fewer than 250,000 population, counties of urban population of >20,000 population and adjacent to a metro area, counties of urban population of 2,500–19,999 and adjacent to a metro area, counties of urban population of 2,500–19,999 and not adjacent to a metro area, completely rural less than 2,500 urban population and adjacent to a metro area, and completely rural less than 2,500 population and not adjacent to a metro area.
State of residence was cancer registry at the state level or regions included in the Surveillance Epidemiology End-Results (SEER) program funded by the National Cancer Institute to collect cancer statistics in the United States.