Stage of diagnosis and survival for prostate cancer among immigrant men in Ontario, Canada
Lofters AK, Sammott SA, Swayze S, Bender JL, Alibhai SMH, Henry A, Noel K, Datta G. Cancer Epidemiol. 2024; Mar 21 [Epub ahead of print].
Background — The relationship of socioeconomic status (SES) with hospital readmissions is unclear.
Methods — The researchers used population-based administrative datasets to randomly select 40,827 adult Ontarians discharged from hospital to the community. Patient postal codes were linked to average neighborhood household-income quintiles. The association of this SES measure with 30-day death or urgent readmission was measured after controlling for outcome risk using a validated index, LACE+: length of stay (L), acuity of the admission (A), comorbidity of the patient (measured with the Charlson Comorbidity Index score (C), and emergency-department use (E).
Results — Within 1 month of discharge, 2638 (6.5%) people died or were urgently readmitted. Lower neighborhood income was significantly associated with both an increased outcome risk (P < 0.0001) and LACE+ score. After adjusting for LACE+ score, neighborhood income was no longer associated with 30-day death or urgent readmission (P = 0.21).
Conclusions — After accounting for known risk factors, early death or readmission is not more common in people from lower-income neighborhoods. Further study is required to determine if SES is associated with adverse postdischarge outcomes in settings without publicly funded healthcare.
van Walraven C, Wong J, Forster AJ. J Hosp Med. 2013; 8(5):261-6. Epub 2013 Apr 10.
The ICES website uses cookies. If that’s okay with you, keep on browsing, or learn more about our Privacy Policy.