Gender, Race, and Variation in the Evaluation of Microscopic Hematuria Among Medicare Beneficiaries: ABSTRACT BACKGROUND Female gender and black race are associated with delayed diagnosis and inferior survival in patients with bladder cancer. OBJECTIVE We aimed to determine the association between gender, race, and evaluation of microscopic hematuria (an early sign of bladder cancer). DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS This was a cohort study using a 5 % random sample of fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries diagnosed with incident hematuria (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision [ICD-9] code 599.7x) between January 2009 and June 2010 in a primary care setting. Beneficiaries with pre-existing explanatory diagnoses or genitourinary procedures were excluded. MAIN MEASURES The main endpoint was completeness of the hematuria evaluation in the 180 days after diagnosis. Evaluations were categorized as complete, incomplete, or absent based on receipt of relevant diagnostic procedures and imaging studies. KEY RESULTS In all, 9,211 beneficiaries met the study criteria. Hematuria evaluations were complete in 14 %, incomplete in 21 %, and absent in 65 % of subjects. Compared to males, females were less likely to have a procedure (26 vs. 12 %), imaging (41 vs. 30 %), and a complete evaluation (22 vs. 10 %) (p
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 10:37:16 +0000
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