Comorbidities and Health Care Services Utilisation Among Long-term Breast Cancer Survivors

Overview

The increased likelihood of survival can be explained by numerous factors, such as improvements in breast cancer screening and advances in diagnosis and treatment and aging. This phenomenon is associated with comorbidity due to cancer treatment and external factors like aging or lifestyle. Little is known about how these women follow-up their disease, their pattern of use of health resources and their met and unmet needs. Studying the health needs of these women is a cancer-related priority for Cancer Organizations.The project is aimed at: 1) Describing the comorbidities and patterns of use of primary and specialized care in women who have survived a breast cancer for at least five years; 2) Comparing the comorbidities and patterns of use of long time breast cancer survivors with women without a cancer diagnosis; and 3) Estimating the use of resources in long time survivors of breast cancer adjusted for survival-time and comorbidities.

The general objective of this study is to analyze the pattern of comorbidities and utilization of primary care officers and specialized attention of long-term breast cancer survivors and to compare it with women without history of cancer. Long-term breast cancer survivors are those women who survived for at least five years since de primary breast cancer diagnosis.The use of health care services for long-term breast cancer survivors presents new challenges for health systems in terms of defining the role of each health professional and each level of care in contact with these women during their follow-up. The SURBCAN Project is an observational study that includes a retrospective cohort of women from five Spanish areas. The study is based on Real World Data from clinical history and tumor registration. Women with a diagnosis of breast cancer and a survival period of ≥ 5 years were identified, as well as those women without a cancer diagnosis and matched by age and area with breast cancer survivors (1:2). N= 21639 women (7241 cases /13,398 controls). Sociodemographic and clinical variables were included. The use of primary care and hospital attention and the presence of comorbidities were assessed during the follow-up period (2012-2016). The basal cohort, the comorbidities and the use of health services were described. Factors associated with use were analyzed through multi-level logistic regression models. Expected results: Nowadays there are no results of cohort analysis that focus specifically in long-term breast cancer survivors. The SURBCAN study will provide evidence regarding comorbidity patterns and follow-up characteristics. The results will guide the elaboration of new recommendations and the decision making by stakeholders concerned to breast cancer survivor's follow-up. This project combines the experience from experts groups in health services assessment, and analysis of comorbidities and chronic diseases, belonging to the REDISSEC network.