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Key takeaways:
Driving distance was inversely associated with the average number of injections per year.
Travel reimbursement may provide an effective, low-cost way to improve patient care and outcomes.
SEATTLE — Receiving travel support may help patients with age-related macular degeneration undergo more injections, regardless of the distance needed to travel for treatment, according to research presented at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology meeting.
“Similar to prior studies, we found that distance to clinic has a significant and meaningful impact on how many injections AMD patients are receiving each year, regardless of which drug they are using,” Frank Brodie, MD, of the University of California San Francisco, told Healio. “What was a novel finding is that this effect is significantly lessened when the veterans receive travel benefits (ie, mileage reimbursement for their visits).”
Receiving travel support may help patients with age-related macular degeneration undergo more injections, according to research presented at ARVO. Image: Adobe Stock
Brodie and colleagues collected data from the San Francisco VA Medical Center eye clinic from January 2010 through December 2019 on patient demographics, anti-VEGF injection history and enrollment in the center’s travel benefit program which offers reimbursements to veterans for health care-related travel.
Three hundred eighteen patients who received intravitreal injections for neovascular AMD were included in the study. The median distance traveled to the clinic was 31.5 miles (range of less than a mile to nearly 400 miles).
The driving distance in miles was inversely associated with the average number of injections received per year.
For patients who did not receive travel benefits, every 100 miles away from the clinic they lived was associated with an average of 3.5 fewer injections (P < .001). However, there was no significant relationship between injections received and distance traveled in patients who received travel benefits.
Being enrolled in travel benefits was associated younger age, greater travel distance and greater travel time. Patients who did not have travel benefits traveled a median of 20.5 miles compared with a median of 58.9 miles (P < .001) in patients who did have travel benefits.
“Many studies have shown how the number of injections per year is directly related to patients’ long-term visual outcomes,” Brodie said. “Our work highlights the very real impact of logistical and financial factors associated with patient access and care. Given the negative effects of patient distance from clinic can be significantly lessened with travel reimbursement, this suggests an effective and relatively low-cost way to improve patient care and outcomes.”
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