Hospitalization, inpatient physical therapy and institutionalization after hospital discharge of prostate cancer patients in south Florida.

AbstractPurpose: Explaining survival variation in prostate cancer requires the identification of new predictive factors, of which physical function is attractive hypothetically. To understand physical dysfunction in prostate cancer better, we examined medical claims. Our aims were to describe the consumption of inpatient resources, examine the association of physical therapy institutionalization after hospital discharge and determine the association of disease stage with frequency of hospitalization, inpatient physical therapy and discharge to a skilled nursing facility.Materials and Methods: We used 1994 Medicare claims for patients in South Florida who had prostate cancer. To examine the association of disease stage with use of health services, we inferred disease stage from stage specific treatment. Multiple linear regression was used to examine the interaction of inferred disease stage with health services while adjusting for age.Results: A total of 22,279 residents of South Florida a mean of 78.3 yea...