To examine disparities in utilization of gynecologic oncologists (s) across race and other sociodemographic factors for women with ovarian cancer.
Obtained ‐Medicare linked dataset for 4,233 non‐ispanic hite, non‐ispanic frican merican, ispanic of any race, and on‐ispanic sian women aged ≥66 years old diagnosed with ovarian cancer during 2000–2002 from 17 registries. Physician specialty was identified by linking data to the master file using nique hysician dentification umbers.
Retrospective claims data analysis for 1999–2006. Logistic regression models were used to analyze the association between utilization and race/ethnicity in the initial, continuing, and final phases of care.
use decreased from the initial to final phase of care (51.4–28.8 percent). No racial/ethnic differences were found overall and by phase of cancer care. Women >70 years old and those with unstaged disease were less likely to receive care compared to their counterparts. use was lower in some registries compared to the tlanta registry.
use for the initial ovarian cancer treatment or for longer term care was low but not different across racial/ethnic groups. Future research should identify factors that affect utilization and understand why use of these specialists remains low.
