There are well-documented disparities in lung cancer outcomes across populations. Lung cancer screening (LCS) has the potential to reduce lung cancer mortality, but for this benefit to be realized by ...all high-risk groups, there must be careful attention to ensuring equitable access to this lifesaving preventive health measure.
To outline current knowledge on disparities in eligibility criteria for, access to, and implementation of LCS, and to develop an official American Thoracic Society statement to propose strategies to optimize current screening guidelines and resource allocation for equitable LCS implementation and dissemination.
A multidisciplinary panel with expertise in LCS, implementation science, primary care, pulmonology, health behavior, smoking cessation, epidemiology, and disparities research was convened. Participants reviewed available literature on historical disparities in cancer screening and emerging evidence of disparities in LCS.
Existing LCS guidelines do not consider racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and sex-based differences in smoking behaviors or lung cancer risk. Multiple barriers, including access to screening and cost, further contribute to the inequities in implementation and dissemination of LCS.
This statement identifies the impact of LCS eligibility criteria on vulnerable populations who are at increased risk of lung cancer but do not meet eligibility criteria for screening, as well as multiple barriers that contribute to disparities in LCS implementation. Strategies to improve the selection and dissemination of LCS in vulnerable groups are described.
Objective
To examine the impact of race/ethnicity on timing and postoperative outcomes of primary cleft lip (CL) and cleft palate (CP) repair.
Design
Cross-sectional analysis of the National Surgical ...Quality Improvement Program Pediatric (NSQIP-P) database from 2013 to 2018.
Patients and main outcome measures
Patients under 2 years of age who underwent primary CL or CP repair were identified in the NSQIP-P. Outcomes were the timing of surgery and 30-day readmission and reoperation rates stratified by race and ethnicity.
Results
In total, 6021 children underwent CL and 6938 underwent CP repair. Adjusted rates of CL repair over time were 10% lower in Hispanic children (95%CI: 0.84–0.96) and 38% lower for Asian children (95%CI: 0.55–0.70) compared with White infants. CP repair rates over time were 13% lower in Black (95%CI: 0.79–0.95), 17% lower in Hispanic (95%CI: 0.77–0.89), and 53% lower in Asian children (95%CI: 0.43–0.53) than in White infants. Asian patients had the highest rates of delayed surgical repair, with 19.3% not meeting American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association (ACPA) guidelines for CL (P < .001) and 28.2% for CP repair (P< .001). Black and Hispanic children had 80% higher odds of readmission following primary CL repair (95%CI: 1.16–2.83 and 95%CI: 1.27–2.61, respectively).
Conclusions
This study of a national database identified several racial/ethnic disparities in primary CL and CP, with reduced receipt of cleft repair over time for non-White children. Asian patients were significantly more likely to have delayed cleft repair per ACPA guidelines. These findings underscore the need to better understand disparities in cleft repair timing and postoperative outcomes.
Despite a profusion of studies over the past several years documenting racial differences in cancer outcomes, there is a paucity of data as to the root causes underlying these observations. This ...article reviews work to date focusing on black-white differences in cancer outcomes, explores potential mechanisms underlying these differences, and identifies patient, physician, and health care system factors that may account for persistent racial disparities in cancer care. Research strategies to elucidate the relative influence of these various factors and policy recommendations to reduce persistent disparities are also discussed.
Abstract Higher breast cancer mortality rates continue to disproportionally affect black women (BW) compared to white women (WW). This disparity is largely due to differences in tumor aggressiveness ...that can be related to distinct ancestry-associated breast tumor microenvironments (TMEs). Yet, characterization of the normal microenvironment (NME) in breast tissue and how they associate with breast cancer risk factors remains unknown. N-glycans, a glucose metabolism-linked post-translational modification, has not been characterized in normal breast tissue. We hypothesized that normal female breast tissue with distinct Breast Imaging and Reporting Data Systems (BI-RADS) categories have unique microenvironments based on N-glycan signatures that varies with genetic ancestries. Profiles of N-glycans were characterized in normal breast tissue from BW (n = 20) and WW (n = 20) at risk for breast cancer using matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry imaging (MSI). A total of 176 N-glycans (32 core-fucosylated and 144 noncore-fucosylated) were identified in the NME. We found that certain core-fucosylated, outer-arm fucosylated and high-mannose N-glycan structures had specific intensity patterns and histological distributions in the breast NME dependent on BI-RADS densities and ancestry. Normal breast tissue from BW, and not WW, with heterogeneously dense breast densities followed high-mannose patterns as seen in invasive ductal and lobular carcinomas. Lastly, lifestyles factors (e.g. age, menopausal status, Gail score, BMI, BI-RADS) differentially associated with fucosylated and high-mannose N-glycans based on ancestry. This study aims to decipher the molecular signatures in the breast NME from distinct ancestries towards improving the overall disparities in breast cancer burden.
We aim to investigate the impact of neighborhood-level social vulnerability on otolaryngology care for children with obstructive sleep-disordered breathing (SDB).
Retrospective cohort study.
A ...tertiary children's hospital.
Children aged 2 to 17 years with SDB were included. Residential addresses were geocoded with geographic information systems, and spatial overlays were used to assign census tract-level social vulnerability index (SVI) scores to each participant. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to estimate associations of neighborhood SVI scores and individual factors with attendance of otolaryngology referral appointment and interventions.
The study included 397 patients (mean ± SD age, 5.9 ± 3.7 years; 51% male, n = 203). After adjustment for age and sex, children with higher overall SVI scores (odds ratio OR, 0.40; 95% CI, 0.16-0.92) and higher socioeconomic vulnerability scores (OR, 0.34; 95% CI, 0.14-0.86) were less likely to attend their referral appointments. The odds of attending referrals were 83% lower (OR, 0.17; 95% CI, 0.09-0.34) for Black children and 73% lower (OR, 0.27; 95% CI, 0.11-0.65) for Hispanic children than for non-Hispanic White children. Medicaid beneficiaries had lower odds of attending their referrals (OR, 0.20; 95% CI, 0.08-0.48) than privately insured children. Overall SVI score was not associated with receiving recommended polysomnography or tonsillectomy.
In our study, children living in areas of greater social vulnerability were less likely to attend their otolaryngology referral appointments for SDB evaluation, as were children of Black race, Hispanic ethnicity, and Medicaid beneficiaries. These results suggest that neighborhood conditions, as well as patient-level factors, influence patient access to SDB care.
Clinical research is vital to the discovery of new cancer treatments that can enhance health and prolong life for cancer patients, but breakthroughs in cancer treatment are limited by challenges ...recruiting patients into cancer clinical trials (CT). Only 3-5% of cancer patients in the United States participate in a cancer CT and there are disparities in CT participation by age, race and gender. Strategies such as patient navigation, which is designed to provide patients with education and practical support, may help to overcome challenges of CT recruitment. The current study evaluated an intervention in which lay navigators were utilized to provide patient education and practical support for helping patients overcome barriers to CT participation and related clinical care. A patient barrier checklist was utilized to record patient barriers to CT participation and care, actions taken by navigators to assist patients with these barriers, and whether or not these barriers could be overcome. Forty patients received patient navigation services. The most common barriers faced by navigated patients were fear (n=9), issues communicating with medical personnel (n=9), insurance issues (n=8), transportation difficulties (n=6) and perceptions about providers and treatment (n=4). The most common activities undertaken by navigators were making referrals and contacts on behalf of patients (e.g., support services, family, clinicians; n=25). Navigators also made arrangement for transportation, financial, medication and equipment services for patients (n=11) and proactively navigated patients (n=8). Barriers that were not overcome for two or more patients included insurance issues, lack of temporary housing resources for patients in treatment and assistance with household bills. The wide array of patient barriers to CT participation and navigator assistance documented in this study supports the CT navigator role in facilitating quality care.
Objective
To determine the impact of race and ethnicity on 30‐day complications following pediatric endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS).
Study Design
Cross‐sectional cohort study.
Subjects and Methods
...Patients ≤ 18 years of age undergoing ESS from 2015 to 2017 were identified in the Pediatric National Surgical Improvement Program‐Pediatric database. Patient demographics, comorbidities, surgical indication, and postoperative complications were extracted. Patient race/ethnicity included non‐Hispanic black, non‐Hispanic white, Hispanic, and other. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to determine if race/ethnicity was a predictor of postoperative complications after ESS.
Results
A total of 4,337 patients were included in the study. The median age was 10.9 (interquartile range: 14.5–6.7) years. The cohort was comprised of 68.3% non‐Hispanic white, 13.9% non‐Hispanic black, 9.7% Hispanic, and 2.1% other. The 30‐day complication rate was 3.2%, and the mortality rate was 0.3%. The rate of reoperation was 3.8%, and readmission was 4.1%. Black and Hispanic patients had higher rates of urgent operations (P = .003 and P < .001, respectively), and black patients had a higher incidence of emergent operations (P < .001) compared to their white peers. For elective ESS cases, multivariable analysis adjusting for sex, age, comorbidities, and surgical indication indicated that children of Hispanic ethnicity had increased postoperative complications (odds ratio: 1.57, 95% confidence interval: 1.04–2.37).
Conclusion
This analysis demonstrated that black and Hispanic children disproportionately undergo more urgent and emergent ESS. Hispanic ethnicity was associated with increased 30‐day complications following elective pediatric ESS. Further studies are needed to elucidate potential causes of these disparities and identify areas for improvement.
Level of Evidence
3 Laryngoscope, 131:E1369–E1374, 2021
Despite efforts to increase diversity in clinical trials, racial/ethnic minority groups generally remain underrepresented, limiting researchers' ability to test the efficacy and safety of new ...interventions across diverse populations. We describe the use of a systematic framework, intervention mapping (IM), to develop an intervention to modify recruitment behaviors of coordinators and specialist investigators with the goal of increasing diversity in trials conducted within specialty clinics. To our knowledge IM has not been used in this setting.
The IM framework was used to ensure that the intervention components were guided by health behavior theories and the evidence. The IM steps consisted of (1) conducting a needs assessment, (2) identification of determinants and objectives, (3) selection of theory-informed methods and practical applications, (4) development and creation of program components, (5) development of an adoption and implementation plan, and (6) creation of an evaluation plan.
The intervention included five educational modules, one in-person and four web-based, plus technical assistance calls to coordinators. Modules addressed the intervention rationale, development of clinic-specific plans to obtain minority-serving physician referrals, physician-centered and patient-centered communication, and patient navigation. The evaluation, a randomized trial, was recently completed in 50 specialty clinics and is under analysis.
Using IM we developed a recruitment intervention that focused on building relationships with minority-serving physicians to encourage minority patient referrals. IM enhanced our understanding of factors that may influence minority recruitment and helped us integrate strategies from multiple disciplines that were relevant for our audience.
Background
End-of-life decisions are frequently made by patients’ surrogates. Race and ethnicity may affect such decision making. Few studies have described how different racial/ethnic groups ...experience end-of-life surrogate decision making.
Objectives
To describe the self-reported experience the self-reported experience of African-American, Caucasian, and Hispanic surrogate decision makers of seriously ill patients and to examine the relationship of race, ethnicity, and culture to that experience.
Design
Purposive sample to include racial/ethnic minorities in a qualitative study using focus group interviews.
Participants
The participants of the study were 44 experienced, mostly female, surrogate decision makers for older veterans.
Approach
Transcripts were qualitatively analyzed to identify major themes, with particular attention to themes that might be unique to each of the three groups.
Results
The experience of burden of end-of-life decision making was similar in all three groups. This burden in its medical, personal, and familial dimensions is compounded by uncertainty about prognosis and the patient’s preferences. Racial/ethnic variations of responses to this burden concerned the physician–family relationship, religion and faith, and past experiences with race/ethnicity concordant versus non-concordant physicians.
Conclusions
Regardless of race/ethnicity, surrogates for seriously ill patients appeared to experience increased significant, multidimensional burdens of decision making under conditions of uncertainty about a patient’s preferences. This aspect of the burden of surrogate decision making may not be fully appreciated by physicians. Physicians should identify and be especially attentive to strategies used by surrogates, which may vary by race/ethnicity, to reduce the uncertainty about a patient’s preferences and thus the burden of surrogate decision making to assist them in this difficult process.
To assess the impact of rural-urban residence on children with obstructive sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) who were candidates for tonsillectomy with or without adenoidectomy (TA).
Retrospective ...cohort study.
Tertiary children's hospital.
A cohort of otherwise healthy children aged 2 to 18 years with a diagnosis of obstructive SDB between April 2016 and December 2018 who were recommended TA were included. Rural-urban designation was defined by ZIP code approximation of rural-urban commuting area codes. The main outcome was association of rurality with time to TA and loss to follow-up using Cox and logistic regression analyses.
In total, 213 patients were included (mean age 6 ± 2.9 years, 117 55% male, 69 32% rural dwelling). Rural-dwelling children were more often insured by Medicaid than private insurance (
< .001) and had a median driving distance of 74.8 vs 16.8 miles (
< .001) compared to urban-dwelling patients. The majority (94.9%) eventually underwent recommended TA once evaluated by an otolaryngologist. Multivariable logistic regression analysis did not reveal any significant predictors for loss to follow-up in receiving TA. Cox regression analysis that adjusted for age, sex, insurance, and race showed that rural-dwelling patients had a 30% reduction in receipt of TA over time as compared to urban-dwelling patients (hazard ratio, 0.7; 95% CI, 0.50-0.99).
Rural-dwelling patients experienced longer wait times and driving distance to TA. This study suggests that rurality should be considered a potential barrier to surgical intervention and highlights the need to further investigate geographic access as an important determinant of care in pediatric SDB.
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