Neighborhood Deprivation, Hospital Quality, and Mortality After Cancer Surgery

Objective:To evaluate if receipt of complex cancer surgery at high-quality hospitals is associated with a reduction in disparities between individuals living in the most and least deprived neighborhoods. Background:The association between social risk factors and worse surgical outcomes for patients undergoing high-risk cancer operations is well documented. To what extent neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation as an isolated social risk factor known to be associated with worse outcomes can be mitigated by hospital quality is less known. Methods:Using 100% Medicare fee-for-service claims, we analyzed data on 212,962 Medicare beneficiaries more than age 65 undergoing liver resection, rectal resection, lung resection, esophagectomy, and pancreaticoduodenectomy for cancer between 2014 and 2018. Clinical risk-adjusted 30-day postoperative mortality rates were used to stratify hospitals into quintiles of quality. Beneficiaries were stratified into quintiles based on census tract Area Deprivation Index. The association of hospital quality and neighborhood deprivation with 30-day mortality was assessed using logistic regression. Results:There were 212,962 patients in the cohort including 109,419 (51.4%) men with a mean (SD) age of 73.8 (5.9) years old. At low-quality hospitals, patients living in the most deprived areas had significantly higher risk-adjusted mortality than those from the least deprived areas for all procedures; esophagectomy: 22.3% versus 20.7%; P<0.003, liver resection 19.3% versus 16.4%; P<0.001, pancreatic resection 15.9% versus 12.9%; P<0.001, lung resection 8.3% versus 7.8%; P<0.001, rectal resection 8.8% versus 8.1%; P<0.001. Surgery at a high-quality hospitals was associated with no significant differences in mortality between individuals living in the most compared with least deprived neighborhoods for esophagectomy, rectal resection, liver resection, and pancreatectomy. For example, the adjusted odds of mortality between individuals living in the most deprived compared with least deprived neighborhoods following esophagectomy at low-quality hospitals (odds ratio=1.22, 95% CI: 1.14-1.31, P<0.001) was higher than at high-quality hospitals (odds ratio=0.98, 95% CI: 0.94-1.02, P=0.03). Conclusion and Relevance:Receipt of complex cancer surgery at a high-quality hospital was associated with no significant differences in mortality between individuals living in the most deprived neighborhoods compared with least deprived. Initiatives to increase access referrals to high-quality hospitals for patients from high deprivation levels may improve outcomes and contribute to mitigating disparities.

Automated summary

Receiving complex cancer surgery at high-quality hospitals was associated with reduced disparities between individuals living in the most and least deprived neighborhoods. Increasing accessibility to high-quality hospitals may improve surgical outcomes and mitigate social disparities.