• Julie Bynum, Yunjie Song, and Elliott Fisher.
• Department of Medicine, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA. julie.bynum@dartmouth.edu
• J Am Geriatr Soc. 2010 Apr 1; 58 (4): 674-80.

ObjectivesTo determine the rate of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening in men aged 80 and older in Medicare and to examine geographic variation in screening rates across the U.S.DesignRetrospective cohort study of variation across hospital referral regions using administrative data.SettingNational random sample in fee-for-service Medicare.ParticipantsMedicare beneficiaries aged 80 and older in 2003.MeasurementsPercentage of men aged 80 and older screened using the PSA test.ResultsThe national rate of PSA screening in men aged 80 and older was 17.2%, but there was wide variation across regions (<2-38%). Higher PSA screening in a region was positively associated with greater total costs (correlation coefficient (r)=0.49, P<.001), greater intensive care unit use at the end of life (r=0.46, P<.001), and greater number of unique physicians seen (r=0.36, P<.001). PSA screening was negatively associated with proportion of beneficiaries using a primary care physician as opposed to a medical subspecialist for the predominance of ambulatory care (r=-0.38, P<.001).ConclusionPSA screening in men aged 80 and older is common practice, although its frequency is highly variable across the United States. Its association with fragmented physician care and aggressive end-of-life care may reflect less reliance on primary care and consequent difficulty informing patients of the potential harms and low likelihood of benefit of this procedure.

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