Abstract 165: A Comparative Study Of The Continuum Of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Care For African Americans And Caucasians On Medicare From 2006-2016
Introduction: Increasing evidence is emerging supporting the disparity between African Americans (AA) and their Caucasian (C) counterparts raising great concern for the equity of quality healthcare across the nation.
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship between the risk factors, complications, and interventions associated with Diabetes Mellitus in the African American and Caucasian populations in the United States between 2006-2016.
Methods: Data was obtained from the Center for Medicaid and Medicare for the Diabetes Mellitus population from 2006-2016.
Results: Based on this study, AA required more hospital visits, sustained more limb amputations, had a higher population diagnosed with hypertension, and displayed decreased utilization of physical therapy in each of the three-year ranges. No significant changes are seen when looking at the number of hospital visits from 2006-2016 in both races. Lower limb amputation also shows minor changes over the year ranges, with C increasing slightly from 2009-2011 to 2012-2016 and AA gradually decreasing from 2006-2008 to 2009-2011 and again from 2009-2011 to 2012-2016. A reduction in patients diagnosed with hypertension in both C and AA is seen when comparing 2006-2008 to 2009-2011 and again when comparing 2009-2011 to 2012-2016. Number of physical therapy visits increased in both races from 2006-2016 which in turn is shown by the percentage of both races not utilizing PT decreasing from 2006-2016. African Americans displayed higher rates of complications and less access to healthcare treatment when compared to the population of Caucasians. When comparing year spans, the results varied between each complication but overall, decreasing trends were seen in favor of better healthcare access and outcomes.
Discussion/Conclusion: . From this study, it can be reasonably concluded that there are disparities in the primary and secondary care of African Americans when compared to Caucasians.
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