Hospital factors and patient characteristics in the treatment of colorectal cancer: a population based study

BMC Public Health

Table 2 Preoperative radiotherapy (RT) (followed by planned surgical admission) in 5,437 incident rectal cancer patients

	Total (N=5437)	Preoperative RT (N=727)	Random-effect model*
	No.	%	OR	95% CI	P
Age (years)
≤60	1,082	19.2	1		<0.001
61-70	1,707	14.8	0.71	(0.57-0.90)
71-80	1,958	11.4	0.51	(0.40-0.65)
>80	690	6.1	0.24	(0.16-0.35)
Gender
Male	3,375	14.2	1		0.03
Female	2,062	12.1	0.77	(0.64-0.93)
Educational level
Secondary or more	813	13.9	1		<0.001
Intermediate	1,244	15.3	1.35	(1.03-1.77)
Primary	2,869	11.7	1.41	(1.09-1.83)
Unknown	511	17.4	1.16	(0.79-1.71)
Marital status ^†
Married	3,720	13.3	1		<0.001
Unmarried	1,352	11.5	0.99	(0.80-1.23)
Unknown	365	20.8	0.84	(0.58-1.20)
Disease staging
Absence of metastases	4,836	13.9	1		0.01
Presence of metastases	601	8.8	0.47	(0.35-0.65)
Comorbidity (Charlson index)
0	4,068	14.1	1		0.01
≥1	1,369	11.2	0.73	(0.59-0.90)
Year of admission
2000	654	6.9	1		<0.001
2001	706	9.6	1.51	(1.00-2.29)
2002	617	12.3	1.96	(1.30-2.95)
2003	607	15.3	2.76	(1.85-4.11)
2004	729	16.0	2.98	(2.02-4.40)
2005	691	16.5	2.90	(1.96-4.29)
2006	738	15.2	2.82	(1.90-4.17)
2007	695	14.7	3.04	(2.03-4.56)
RT service
Absent	2,775	9.4	1		<0.001
Present	2,662	17.5	2.24	(1.77-2.85)
Distance to RT service (min.)
Same city or <15’	2,576	15.6	1		<0.001
15’ to <30’	1,984	12.2	0.97	(0.80-1.18)
≥30’	877	9.6	0.82	(0.60-1.12)
Hospital volume (annual caseload)
>25	3,076	17.6	-	*	<0.001
11-25	1,778	6.8	-	*
≤10	583	11.1	-	*

*Given the correlation between hospital volume and presence of RT service, these predictors were not included in the models simultaneously.
^†Unmarried includes single, separated, divorced and widowed.
OR: odds ratio, CI: confidence interval, APR-DRG: all-patient-refined-diagnosis-related group, RT: radiotherapy.

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