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Associations of insurance, urbanity, and comorbidity with types of palliative care received by patients with head and neck cancer
Author(s) -
Ramsey Tam,
Lee Brian,
Curran Kent,
Desai Vilok,
Debiase Carolyn,
Galati Lisa,
GildenerLeapman Neil
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
head and neck
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.012
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1097-0347
pISSN - 1043-3074
DOI - 10.1002/hed.26648
Subject(s) - medicine , head and neck cancer , odds ratio , confidence interval , logistic regression , palliative care , cancer , physical therapy , nursing
Background Our study examined some of the social and medical factors associated with receiving pain palliation alone over more aggressive cytoreductive palliative measures, such as surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation among patients with head and neck cancer. Methods This retrospective study used the National Cancer Database 2016 for data analysis. Patient and tumor characteristics were examined using bivariate analysis and logistic regression to identify their association with receiving pain palliation alone versus cytoreductive palliation treatment. Results Using multivariate logistic regression analysis, insurance status (odds ratio [OR]: 0.27, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.15–0.50, p < 0.001), urbanity (OR: 1.73, 95%CI: 1.21–2.46, p = 0.002), and Charlson–Deyo scores greater than 3 (OR: 2.49, 95%CI: 1.38–4.47, p = 0.002) were significantly associated with receipt of pain palliation alone. Conclusions Clinicians should be aware of non‐health‐related factors, such as insurance status, that may influence patients' receipt of treatments in head and neck cancer.