Effects of physician outreach programs on rural-urban differences in breast cancer management

In 1986 to 1987, urban-rural differences in several breast cancer management practices were noted in Illinois data. Several intervention programs for physicians were initiated to improve rural patients' access to state-of-the-art breast cancer management to reduce these differences. This report compares an intensive rural oncology outreach intervention program with a lower intensity physician education program. Medical records from 1986 to 1991 were reviewed on 2,277 breast cancer patients in a 12-county study area. The care received by urban patients was compared with three groups of rural patients: those managed in rural hospitals with intensive oncology outreach programs beginning in 1988 (Rural group 1), and in those rural hospitals with less intensive interventions using an audit with feedback strategy beginning in 1989 (Rural group 2). Rural patients who traveled to one of the urban facilities also were included in the analysis because the less intensive interventions also took place in these facilities, and these patients showed unique patterns of care in the baseline analysis (Rural Group 3). The years 1986 to 1987 constituted the baseline, and 1990 to 1991 constituted the final evaluation period. Chi square and multivariate analyses were conducted to compare the effect of the two types of interventions on changing breast cancer management practices and reducing the urban-rural differences. By the final evaluation period, the high intensity intervention was not more successful in reducing or eliminating the urban-rural differences than the low intensity intervention for many practices. However, often the frequency estimates were higher in Rural Group 1, which received the high intensity intervention. The changes noted in Rural Group 3 were not always the same as in Rural Group 2, even though both received the same low intensity interventions, lending evidence to the observation that travel distance and other nonmedical factors affect the choices of management modalities for these patients. Finally, given the nonrandomized study design, other explanations for the changes could not be ruled out.