Demographic and socioeconomic factors predictive of compliance with American Thyroid Association guidelines for the treatment for advanced papillary thyroid carcinoma

Abstract

Background The American Thyroid Association (ATA) publishes evidence-based guidelines for the treatment of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). We sought to identify factors associated with receiving treatment compliant with the 2006 ATA guidelines for advanced-stage PTC. Methods The 2006 ATA guideline compliance was examined in patients with stage III and IV PTC extrapolated from Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER). Results Sixty percent of patients received ATA-compliant treatment. A stepwise increase in compliance occurred between 2006 and 2009 (p-value trend =.0003). Age 45 to 64 years versus ≥65 (odds ratio [OR] = 0.682; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.57-0.81; p