BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Social determinants of health (SDOHs) are especially impactful with respect to emergency reliance among patients with cancer.

METHODS

To better predict the extent to which SDOHs affect emergency admissions in homeless patients with metastatic disease, we employed machine learning models, Lasso, ridge, random forest (RF), and elastic net (EN) regression. We also examined prostate cancer (PC), breast cancer (BC), lung (LC) cancer, and cancers of the lip, oral cavity, and pharynx (CLOP) for association between key SDOH variables-homelessness and living alone-and clinical outcomes. For this, we utilized generalized linear models to assess the association while controlling for patient and clinical characteristics. We used the United States National Inpatient Sample database for this study.

RESULTS

There were 2635 (weighted) metastatic cancer patients with homelessness. Transfer from another facility or not, elective admission or not, deficiency anemia, alcohol dependence, weekend admission or not, and blood loss anemia were the important predictors of emergency admission. C-statistics were associated with Lasso (train AUC-0.85; test AUC-0.86), ridge (85, 88), RF (0.96, 0.85), and EN (0.83, 0.80), respectively. In the adjusted analysis, PC homelessness was significantly associated with anxiety and depression (5.15, 95% CI: 3.17-8.35) and a longer LOS (1.96; 95% CI: 1.03-3.74). Findings were comparable in the BC, LC, and CLOP cohorts. Cancer patients with poor SDOHs presented with the worst clinical outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS

Cancer patients with poor SDOH presented with worst clinical outcomes. The findings of this study highlight a vacuum in the cancer literature, and the recommendations stress the value of social support in achieving a better prognosis and Quality of life.