Days at Home After Cancer Surgery: Impact of Area Deprivation and Association with Long-Term Outcomes

Poor infrastructure in deprived areas may hinder access to health care, and a lack of socioeconomic resources can prevent patients from remaining at home after discharge. This study sought to assess the association between the Area Deprivation Index (ADI) and days at home within 90 days (DAH-90) after a complex operative procedure.

Patients who underwent an elective operation for a gastrointestinal cancer between 2016 and 2020 were identified from the Medicare Standard Analytic Files. County-level ADI was calculated using a weighted average of ADI percentiles for each census block within a county. The association between ADI and DAH-90 and the impact of DAH-90 on 1-year expenditures and 1-year mortality were evaluated.

Among 72,452 patients who underwent a surgical procedure, median patient age was 75 years (interquartile range [IQR] 71–81) and 54.3% of patients had a Charlson Comorbidity Index higher than 2. A +0.2 increase in ADI was associated with 12.6% lower odds of achieving high DAH-90 (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.874; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.845–0.903) compared with low DAH-90. Notably, high DAH-90 (mean difference, −55,614$; 95% CI, −56,540$ to −54,687$) and medium DAH-90 (mean difference, −39,538$; 95% CI, −40,194$ to −38,882$) were associated with markedly decreased 1-year total expenditures, as well as lower 1-year mortality compared with patients who spent fewer days at home after surgery.

Increasing area deprivation was associated with higher likelihood of spending fewer days at home after a complex cancer surgical procedure. Patients spending fewer days at home were far more likely to die within 1 year and experienced higher health care costs.