Data Driven Approach to Burden of Treatment Measurement: A Study of Patients with Breast Cancer.
Year: 2016
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Chronic disease affects patient quality of life through symptoms of the disease and the work of receiving treatment. While the effects of illness are well investigated, the burden of treatment is not commonly studied or monitored. We developed a method to quantify one dimension of the burden of treatment based on patient encounters with the healthcare system. We applied this method to a population of stage I-III breast cancer patients. As hypothesized and observed, stage IIIpatients had more appointments, spent more time in clinic, and spent more time admitted to the hospital in the first 18 months after diagnosis compared to stage I and II patients. Future work will evaluate the reproducibility and generalizability of this method for quantifying burden of treatment across other clinical settings and chronic diseases. This approach could enable identification of high-risk groups that could benefit from interventions to decrease patient work and improve outcomes.
Source: PubMed Central
Authors: Alex C Cheng, Mia A Levy
Institution: Vanderbilt University
Language: English
Topic: Cancer survivorship and care
Subfield: Oncology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2620581019