Association of Neighborhood Disadvantage with Short- and Long-Term Outcomes After Pancreatectomy for Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma

Background While lower socioeconomic status has been shown to correlate with worse outcomes in cancer care, data correlating neighborhood-level metrics with outcomes are scarce. We aim to explore the association between neighborhood disadvantage and both short- and long-term postoperative outcomes in patients undergoing pancreatectomy for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Patients and Methods We retrospectively analyzed 243 patients who underwent resection for PDAC at a single institution between 1 January 2010 and 15 September 2021. To measure neighborhood disadvantage, the cohort was divided into tertiles by Area Deprivation Index (ADI). Short-term outcomes of interest were minor complications, major complications, unplanned readmission within 30 days, prolonged hospitalization, and delayed gastric emptying (DGE). The long-term outcome of interest was overall survival. Logistic regression was used to test short-term outcomes; Cox proportional hazards models and Kaplan–Meier method were used for long-term outcomes. Results The median ADI of the cohort was 49 (IQR 32–64.5). On adjusted analysis, the high-ADI group demonstrated greater odds of suffering a major complication (odds ratio [OR], 2.78; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.26–6.40; p = 0.01) and of an unplanned readmission (OR, 3.09; 95% CI, 1.16–9.28; p = 0.03) compared with the low-ADI group. There were no significant differences between groups in the odds of minor complications, prolonged hospitalization, or DGE (all p > 0.05). High ADI did not confer an increased hazard of death ( p = 0.63). Conclusions We found that worse neighborhood disadvantage is associated with a higher risk of major complication and unplanned readmission after pancreatectomy for PDAC.