Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics associated with rehabilitation services utilization in older women with early-stage breast cancer from SEER-Medicare 2009–2018

Rehabilitation services are recommended by clinical practice guidelines following breast cancer treatment, yet little is known about how utilization may vary by patient-level characteristics which we aimed to study using SEER-Medicare data.

Data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare linked database was used to identify non-metastatic breast cancer survivors aged ≥ 66 years diagnosed between 2011 and 2016. Rehabilitation services delivered 0–11 months post-diagnosis were identified via outpatient or physician visit claims. Descriptive statistics and associations between patient characteristics and rehabilitation services were calculated using modified Poisson models estimating relative risk (RR) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs).

Of 55,539 breast cancer survivors, 33% (n = 18,244) had received any type of rehabilitative services. Survivors were a mean age of 75 years (SD 6.7), 88% White, 86% urban-dwelling, and 21% Medicare/Medicaid dually enrolled. In adjusted models, patients aged > 75 vs. ≤ 75 were 6% (RR 0.94, 95% CI 0.92–0.96) less likely to have received rehabilitative services. Survivors in an area with greater educational attainment vs. less educational attainment, White vs. non-White, or living in a rural vs. urban area were 26% (1.26, CI 1.22–1.30), 6% (1.06, CI 1.02–1.11), and 6% (1.06, CI 1.02–1.10) more likely to have received rehabilitative services, respectively.

The largest differences in rehabilitation utilization were observed for survivors of differing educational and treatment statuses.

Further research is needed on barriers, access, and delivery of rehabilitation services, specifically for breast cancer survivors who are older-aged, non-White, or Medicare/Medicaid dual eligible.