TY - JOUR
T1 - Analyzing hospital choices of colon cancer patients in four states in appalachia
AU - Verevkina, Nina I.
AU - Short, Pamela Farley
AU - Yang, Tse Chuan
AU - Matthews, Stephen A.
AU - Camacho, Fabian
AU - Anderson, Roger
N1 - Funding Information:
Research involving Human Participants: IRB # 3355EP Patterns of Patient Care in Appalachia Informed consent: Not applicable Funding: This work was supported by the National Cancer Institute [grant number 1R01CA140335]. The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the position of the National Cancer Institute. Additional support has been provided by the Population Research Institute at the Pennsylvania State University which receives core funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Award [P2CHD041025]. Conflict of Interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Publisher Copyright:
© Meharry Medical College.
PY - 2019/5
Y1 - 2019/5
N2 - While geographic disparities in cancer treatment are documented, little research has investigated patients’ willingness to travel longer distances for treatment at higherquality hospitals. Even fewer studies have compared metropolitan and non-metropolitan patients on this dimension. Using population-based data from the Appalachian counties of four states, we identified all hospitals within a plausible driving distance of each newly diagnosed colon cancer patient and estimated conditional logit models of hospital choices for cancer surgery. Two sets of important findings emerged. First, both metropolitan and non-metropolitan patients chose higher-quality over lower-quality hospitals, and were willing to travel farther to use high-quality facilities. Second, non-metropolitan patients were not willing to travel farther than their metropolitan counterparts to hospitals that were more desirable along most dimensions, but non-metropolitan patients were willing to travel farther to high-volume hospitals. These findings show how travel distances to high-quality hospitals contribute to geographic disparities in colon cancer treatment.
AB - While geographic disparities in cancer treatment are documented, little research has investigated patients’ willingness to travel longer distances for treatment at higherquality hospitals. Even fewer studies have compared metropolitan and non-metropolitan patients on this dimension. Using population-based data from the Appalachian counties of four states, we identified all hospitals within a plausible driving distance of each newly diagnosed colon cancer patient and estimated conditional logit models of hospital choices for cancer surgery. Two sets of important findings emerged. First, both metropolitan and non-metropolitan patients chose higher-quality over lower-quality hospitals, and were willing to travel farther to use high-quality facilities. Second, non-metropolitan patients were not willing to travel farther than their metropolitan counterparts to hospitals that were more desirable along most dimensions, but non-metropolitan patients were willing to travel farther to high-volume hospitals. These findings show how travel distances to high-quality hospitals contribute to geographic disparities in colon cancer treatment.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85066950668&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85066950668&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1353/hpu.2019.0044
DO - 10.1353/hpu.2019.0044
M3 - Article
C2 - 31130539
AN - SCOPUS:85066950668
VL - 30
SP - 587
EP - 608
JO - Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved
JF - Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved
SN - 1049-2089
IS - 2
ER -