Healthcare Utilization Disparities Among Lung Cancer Patients in US Hospitals During 2010-2014: Evidence from the US Hispanic Population's Hospital Charges and Length of Stay

Sun Jung Kim; Mar Medina; Rigoberto Delgado; Anastasia Miller; Jongwha Chang

doi:10.2147/IJGM.S348159

Healthcare Utilization Disparities Among Lung Cancer Patients in US Hospitals During 2010-2014: Evidence from the US Hispanic Population's Hospital Charges and Length of Stay

Int J Gen Med. 2022 Feb 9:15:1329-1339. doi: 10.2147/IJGM.S348159. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Sun Jung Kim^#^{1

2

3}, Mar Medina^#⁴, Rigoberto Delgado⁵, Anastasia Miller⁵, Jongwha Chang⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Health Administration and Management, College of Medical Science, Soonchunhyang University, Asan, Republic of Korea.
² Center for Healthcare Management Science, Soonchunhyang University, Asan, Republic of Korea.
³ Department of Software Convergence, Soonchunhyang University, Asan, Republic of Korea.
⁴ School of Pharmacy, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX, USA.
⁵ Department of Healthcare Administration, College of Business, Texas Woman's University, Denton, TX, USA.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Purpose: There is a lack of research focused on understanding the differences in the healthcare utilization of lung cancer patients between ethnic groups. This study aims to characterize disparities in healthcare utilization for Hispanic lung cancer patients compared to non-Hispanic patients.

Methods: National Inpatient Sample was used to identify nationwide lung cancer patients (n=141,675, weighted n=702,878) from 2010 to 2014. We examined the characteristics of the study sample by race (Hispanic vs non-Hispanic) and its association with healthcare utilization, measured by discounted hospital charges and length of stay. Multivariate survey regression models were used to identify predictors by racial groups.

Results: Among 702,878 lung cancer patients, 5.1% were Hispanic. Descriptive statistics showed that Hispanics have higher hospital charges and length of stay. Survey regression results also suggested that Hispanic lung cancer patients were associated with higher hospital charges (26.6%) and length of stay (3.5%) than non-Hispanic lung cancer patients. Subgroup analysis displayed a similar trend to the full model.

Conclusion: Healthcare utilization disparities may exist for lung cancer Hispanic patients due to insurance status and early detection. Thus, our findings support providing financial assistance and targeted programs for minority patients. Future health policy consideration should be given to those vulnerable populations where limited healthcare resources are available.

Keywords: Hispanic patients; NIS sample; healthcare utilization; lung cancer.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Soonchunhyang University Research Fund and BK21 FOUR (Fostering Outstanding Universities for Research, No. 5199990914048, Korean Ministry of Education).