The Pre2 CAP laboratory recently coauthored a study published in JAMA Network Open in partnership with the US Veterans Health Administration comparing the magnitude of racial and socioeconomic disparities among patients with prostate cancer receiving care in the Greater Los Angeles Veterans Health Administration to those residing in the same Census Tracts but receiving care in other health care settings. Prior studies have reported smaller racial and socioeconomic disparities in the Veterans Health Administration, in part due to greater provision of social support to patients (including transportation and lower out of pocket expenses). We examined racial and socioeconomic disparities in advanced stage at diagnosis, all-cause mortality, and prostate cancer-specific mortality among men in the VHA to the matched population-based sample (obtained using data from the California Cancer Registry). Statistically significant variation in the magnitude of racial and socioeconomic disparities were observed across the cohorts, with smaller disparities observed in the VHA. These findings support the hypothesis that addressing access barriers in health care systems serving socioeconomically and racially diverse populations can attenuate disparities.
Read more about the study here.