Neighborhood socioeconomic status and low‐value breast cancer care

BACKGROUND: The objective of this study is to examine the association between neighborhood socioeconomic status (nSES) and receipt of low‐value breast cancer procedures. METHODS: Patients with breast cancer diagnosed between 2010 and 2016 were identified in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program. Low value procedures included: (1) axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) for patients with limited nodal disease receiving breast conservation therapy (BCT); (2) contralateral prophylactic mastectomies (CPM); and (3) sentinel lymph node biopsies (SLNB) in patients ≥70 years old with clinically node negative early‐stage hormone‐positive breast cancer. The cohort was divided by nSES. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression analysis compared the groups. RESULTS: The study included 412 959 patients. Compared to patients in high nSES areas, residing in neighborhoods with low nSES (odd ratio [OR] 2.20, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.0−2.42) and middle nSES (OR 1.42, 95% CI 1.20−1.56) was associated with a higher probability of undergoing low value ALND. Conversely, patients in low SES neighborhoods were less likely to receive low value SLNB (OR 0.89, 95% CI 0.85−0.94) or CPM than (low nSES OR 0.75, 95% CI 0.73−0.77); middle nSES OR 0.91 (0.89−0.92) those in high SES neighborhoods. CONCLUSION: In the SEER Program, low nSES was associated with a lower probability of low value procedures except for ALND utilization.