Geographical disparities in treatment and health care costs for end-of-life cancer patients in China: a retrospective study

Leng, Anli; Jing, Jun; Nicholas, Stephen; Wang, Jian

doi:10.1186/s12885-018-5237-1

Table 1 Characteristics of the study sample by geographical location (N = 792)

From: Geographical disparities in treatment and health care costs for end-of-life cancer patients in China: a retrospective study

Characteristics	Urban (n = 195)			Rural (n = 597)			p- value	Western (n = 162)			Central (n = 242)			Eastern (n = 388)			p - value
Characteristics	n	%	mean (SD)	n	%	mean (SD)		n	%	mean (SD)	n	%	mean (SD)	n	%	Mean (SD)	p - value
Gender			NA			NA	0.00			NA			NA			NA	0.35
Male	116	59.49		423	70.85			110	67.90		173	71.49		256	65.98
Female	79	40.51		174	29.15			52	32.10		69	28.51		132	34.02
Age			64.75 (14.42)			64.01 (12.78)	0.49			61.15 (12.86)			64.29 (13.35)			65.42 (13.06)	0.01
Age < 45	15	7.69		44	7.37			20	12.35		18	7.44		21	5.41
Age 45–54	37	18.97		77	12.90			28	17.28		33	13.64		53	13.66
Age 55–64	40	20.51		174	29.15			53	32.72		65	26.86		96	24.74
Age 65–74	48	24.62		169	28.31			36	22.22		71	29.34		110	28.35
Age 75-	55	28.21		133	22.28			25	15.43		55	22.70		108	27.84
Marriages			NA			NA	0.08			NA			NA			NA	0.02
Married	156	80		501	83.92			144	88.89		204	84.30		309	79.64
Other (unmarried/widowed/divorced)	39	20		96	16.08			18	11.11		38	15.70		79	20.36
Nation			NA			NA	0.22			NA			NA			NA
Han	188	96.41		562	94.14			125	77.16		240	99.17		385	99.20		0.00
Minority	7	3.59		35	5.86			37	22.84		2	0.83		3	0.77
Residence			NA			NA	NA			NA			NA			NA	0.00
Urban	NA	NA		NA	NA			47	29.01		28	11.57		120	30.93
Rural	NA	NA		NA	NA			115	70.99		214	88.43		268	69.07
Occupation			NA			NA	0.00			NA			NA			NA	0.00
Farmer	37	18.97		476	79.73			106	65.43		178	73.55		229	59.02
Steady workers	27	13.85		42	7.04			12	7.41		21	8.68		36	9.28
Non-regular workers	55	28.21		55	9.21			19	11.73		28	11.57		63	16.24
The retired	76	38.97		24	4.02			25	15.43		15	6.20		60	15.46
Annual per-capita income ($)^a			28.05 (31.29)			10.78 (14.06)	0.00			16.91 (17.50)			8.90 (17.13)			18.07 (23.67)	0.00
Low income level (≤ $421)	14	7.18		165	27.64			15	9.26		83	34.30		81	20.88
Below average level($422–$1505)	42	21.54		283	47.40			76	46.91		117	48.35		132	34.02
Average level ($1506–$4015)	61	31.28		80	13.40			40	24.69		24	9.92		77	19.85
Above average level (≥$4016)	78	40.00		69	11.56			31	19.14		18	7.43		98	25.26
The nearest medical institutions			NA			NA	0.00			NA			NA			NA	0.00
Village clinics	1	0.51		283	47.40			58	35.80		67	27.69		159	40.98
Town health center	5	2.56		113	18.93			11	6.79		67	27.69		40	10.31
County hospital	53	27.18		120	20.10			55	33.95		33	13.64		85	21.91
Municipal level or above hospitals	110	56.41		5	0.84			28	17.28		14	5.79		73	18.81
Private clinic	1	0.51		57	9.55			0	0.00		56	23.14		2	0.52
Other	25	12.82		19	3.18			0	0.00		5	2.07		0	0.00
Distance to the nearest medical institutions			2.77 (2.58)			2.70 (4.19)	0.83			3.62 (5.86)			3.10 (3.77)			2.11 (2.50)	0.00
< 1 km	29	14.87		195	32.66			37	22.84		44	18.18		143	36.86
1-5 km	137	70.26		301	50.42			93	57.41		146	60.33		199	51.29
>5 km	29	14.87		100	16.92			32	19.75		52	21.49		46	11.85

^aBased on a currency exchange rate of the 6.6423 yuan to US$1.00 in 2016

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ISSN: 1471-2407

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