The effect of a cancer diagnosis on disability status

Abstract

6531 Background: Although cancer and cancer treatments may lead to an inability to work, working-age adults eligible for Medicare benefits on the basis of disability face a 29-month waiting period between initial application due to disability and enrollment in the program. In this study we evaluated patterns of Medicare enrollment for working-age adults with cancer and determined factors predicting enrollment. Methods: The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) and SEER-Medicare data were used for this retrospective cohort analysis. We included patients age 21 to 59 diagnosed with lung, prostate, colorectal, and breast cancer (female) cases from 1992 through 2002. Patients were ..