Unmet Need for Symptom Management from Breast Cancer Treatment

1. Unmet Need for Symptom Management from Breast Cancer Treatment Jean Yoon, Jennifer Malin, Diana Tisnado, May Lin Tao, Patricia Ganz, Katherine Kahn Los Angeles Women’s Study RAND, Santa Monica UCLA General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research

2. Background • Treatment and early detection of breast cancer has improved patient survival. • Quality of life and symptom management have become important for patients with breast cancer. • Symptoms vary by patient characteristics and type of treatment.

3. Previous Research • Most quality of breast cancer care studies focus on whether women received screening, timely diagnosis, and appropriate interventions. • Several studies examined pain management for cancer patients. • Few studies have analyzed whether patients have received appropriate management of other symptoms. - IOM describes one aspect of quality of care and desirable health outcomes as management of physical and psychological symptoms

4. Study Design • Los Angeles Women’s Study conducted in 2000. • Population-based study. • Patients identified through Rapid Case Ascertainment. • 1,219 women responded to survey with 63% response rate.

5. Defining Unmet Need • Had symptom severe enough that it interfered with mood or functioning • Arm problems, nausea/vomiting, hot flashes, vaginal dryness, problems with sleep. • Wanted help for her symptoms • Did not receive any help for her symptoms

6. Analysis • Bivariate and multivariate analyses of unmet need by patient characteristics. - Patient characteristics included age, race, language, education, income, marital status, working status, insurance coverage, treatments received, number of severe symptoms, health status, comorbid conditions, stage at diagnosis. • Bivariate analysis of reasons for unmet need by race/ethnicity. • Results weighted for non-response and adjusted for clustering at hospital level.

7. Sample Race/Ethnicity N % White 834 65 Black112 12 Hispanic Spanish 104 9 Hispanic English 103 8 Other 66 6

8. Sample Characteristics Mean age (SD) 67 (14) % with at least one comorbidity 83% Stage at diagnosis: In situ (13%), I (38%), II (30%), III (5%), IV(2%), Unknown (11%)

9. Prevalence of Unmet Need

10. Symptom Prevalence by Race/Ethnicity

11. Unmet Need Prevalence by Race/Ethnicity

12. Odds Ratios Black 3.61* Hispanic Spanish language 2.69* Other 1.37 White 1.00 Hispanic English language 0.94 Race/Ethnicity as Predictors of Unmet Need * P<0.05 Model included age, education, income, working status, health status, comorbid condition, treatments received, stage at diagnosis, and number of severe symptoms.

13. Reasons for Unmet Need by Race/Ethnicity

14. Conclusion • Prevalence of unmet need varied by type of symptom. • Black and Hispanic Spanish-speaking women were less likely to report having a symptom and more likely to report an unmet need. • Among women with an unmet need, more black, Hispanic Spanish-speaking, and other women reported the reasons as the MD did not think treatment would benefit her and the MD did not know about treatments.

15. Limitations • Survey relied on patient self-report of severe symptoms, and the variability of symptom severity among patients was not determined. • Results are not generalizable to premenopausal women. • Asian American women 60-75 years of age were allocated to another study and not able to be included.

16. Implications for Practice and Policy • Symptoms cannot always be cured but can be managed. • Providers should systematically evaluate symptoms and their effects on function and quality of life. • Research continues to highlight the need to address the causes of unequal treatment