Intersection of Race, Rurality, and Income in Defining Access to Minimally Invasive Lung Surgery

Race is a potent influencer of health care access. Geography and income may exert equal or greater influence on patient outcomes. We sought to define the intersection of race, rurality, and income and their influence on access to minimally invasive lung surgery in Medicare beneficiaries.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data were used to evaluate patients with lung cancer who underwent right upper lobectomy, by open, robotic-assisted thoracic surgery (RATS), or video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) between 2018 and 2020. International Classification of Diseases, 10th Edition, was used to define diagnoses and procedures. We excluded sublobar, segmental, wedge, bronchoplasty, or reoperative patients with nonmalignant or metastatic disease or a history of neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Risk adjustment was performed using inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) propensity scores with generalized linear models and Cox proportional hazards models.

The cohort comprised 13,404 patients, 4291 open (32.1%), 4317 RATS (32.2%), and 4796 VATS (35.8%). Black/urban patients had significantly higher RATS and VATS rates (P < .001), longer long-term survival (P = .007), fewer open resections (P < .001), and lower overall mortality (P = .007). Low-income Black/urban patients had higher RATS (P = .002), VATS (P < .001), longer long-term survival (P = .005), fewer open resections (P < .001), and lower overall mortality compared with rural White patients (P = .005).

Rural White populations living close to the federal poverty line may suffer a burden of disparity traditionally observed among poor Black people. This suggests a need for health policies that extend services to impoverished, rural areas to mitigate social determinants of health.