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  • Temporal trends of healthcare system use between symptomatic presentation and ovarian cancer diagnosis in the United States

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Original research
Temporal trends of healthcare system use between symptomatic presentation and ovarian cancer diagnosis in the United States
  1. Sarah P Huepenbecker1,
  2. Charlotte C Sun1,
  3. Shuangshuang Fu2,3,
  4. Hui Zhao2,
  5. Weiguo He2,4,
  6. Kristin Primm5,
  7. Sharon H Giordano2 and
  8. Larissa A Meyer1
  1. 1 Department of Gynecologic Oncology and Reproductive Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
  2. 2 Department of Health Services Research, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
  3. 3 Becton Dickinson and Company, Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, USA
  4. 4 Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, Michigan, USA
  5. 5 Department of Epidemiology, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Larissa A Meyer, Department of Gynecologic Oncology and Reproductive Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA; lmeyer{at}mdanderson.org

Abstract

Objective To describe trends in healthcare system use over time between onset of classic ovarian cancer symptoms and ovarian cancer diagnosis in the United States.

Methods A population-based study of the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-Medicare database was conducted on patients aged ≥66 years with stage II–IV epithelial ovarian cancer between 1992 and 2015 with at least one of the following diagnosis codes: abdominal pain, bloating, difficulty eating, and/or urinary symptoms. The outcomes were frequency of visit type, frequency of diagnostic modality, and Medicare reimbursement between first symptomatic claim and cancer diagnosis. Jonckheere-Terpstra and Cochran-Armitage tests were used to evaluate trends over time.

Results Among 13 872 women, 13 541 (97.6%) had outpatient, 6466 (46.6%) had inpatient, and 4906 (35.4%) had emergency room visits. The frequency of outpatient (p<0.001) and emergency room visits (p<0.001) increased while the frequency of inpatient visits (p<0.001) decreased between 1992 and 2015. The median number of outpatient visits (p<0.001) and physician specialties seen (p<0.001) increased over time. The median hospital length of stay decreased from 10 days in 1992 to 5 days in 2015 (p<0.001). Between 1992 and 2015, the frequency of ultrasound decreased (p<0.001) while the frequency of computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission tomography imaging, and cancer antigen 125 tumor immunoassay increased (p<0.001). Median monthly total (p<0.001), inpatient (p<0.001), and outpatient (p=0.006) reimbursements decreased while emergency room reimbursements increased (p<0.001) over time.

Conclusion Healthcare reimbursement between symptomatic presentation and ovarian cancer diagnosis has decreased over time and may reflect the trends in fewer and shorter hospitalizations and increased use of emergency and outpatient management during the evaluation of symptoms of women with ovarian cancer.

  • ovarian cancer
  • gynecology

Data availability statement

No data are available.

https://doi.org/10.1136/ijgc-2021-003219

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    Data availability statement

    No data are available.

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter @sarah_huep, @huizhao_liu@yahoo.com

    • Presented at Data from this study were presented as a poster at the International Gynecologic Cancer Society 2021 Annual Global Meeting.

    • Contributors SH: Conceptualization, investigation, writing - original draft. CCS: Conceptualization, investigation, writing - review and editing, supervision. SF: Methodology, formal analysis, investigation, data curation, writing - review and editing. HZ: Methodology, supervision, writing - review and editing. WH: Methodology, formal analysis, data curation, writing - review and editing, supervision. KP: Conceptualization, investigation, writing - review and editing. SHG: Conceptualization, writing - review and editing, supervision. LAM: Conceptualization, investigation, writing - review and editing, supervision, guarantor.

    • Funding This work was supported in part by the MD Anderson Cancer Center support grant from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH/NCI P30 CA016672, CA217685) and the T32 training grant CA101642 (SH). LAM is supported by a NIH-NCIK07-CA201013 grant. SHG is supported by CPRIT RP160674 and Komen SAC150061.

    • Competing interests LAM reports consulting fees from Bristol Meyers Squibb, advisory board participation for GlaxoSmithKline, and stocks in Crisper, Invitae, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. CCS reports partial research funding from AstraZeneca and stock in Inform Genomics.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.