Copd-Related Health and Treatment Disparities in Rural Colorado

Freitag, Tammie J.; Koff, Patricia B.; Min, Sung‐Joon; James, Shannon S.; Westfall, John M.; Kveton, Christine; Carwin, Stephanie; Stelzner, Thomas J.; Beck, Arne; Keith, Robert L.; Vandivier, R. William; Linderman, Derek J.

doi:10.1378/chest.134.4_meetingabstracts.p102003

Cited by 2 publications

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“…A lack of treatment options could increase and lead to more frequent hospitalizations in rural areas. A study of COPD related disparities in Colorado found that rural subjects were less likely to have received adequate preventative or non medical therapies which could have increased the COPD-related mortality10. Examination of geographic variations is an important health disparity11, which has not been explored for COPD in Texas.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geographic disparity in COPD hospitalization rates among the Texas population

Jackson

Suzuki

et al. 2011

Respiratory Medicine

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Summary Background Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality caused by cigarette smoking and other environmental exposures. While variation in exposures may affect COPD morbidity and mortality, little is known about geographic variation, a surrogate of exposures. The objective of this manuscript is to explore the geographic variation in COPD hospitalization rates among the Texas population in 2006. Methods The study population consisted of all Texas residents with COPD hospitalizations in the 2006 Texas Health Care Information Council (THCIC) data. County population estimates stratified by race, age, gender were linked to THCIC data to calculate county level COPD hospitalization rates per 100,000 admissions. The data were merged with Urban Influence Codes by county, and metropolitan status was determined by United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) criteria. Variation in COPD hospitalization rates were analyzed using Poisson Regression. Results Overall, non-Hispanic (NH) Whites had the highest rate of hospitalization, followed by NH Blacks (rate ratio=0.42) and Hispanics (RR=0.17), the 65+ age category had the highest rates of hospitalization. In the metropolitan counties COPD hospitalization rates are lower than non metropolitan counties, however in metropolitan counties the rates of hospitalization are significantly higher (p<0.0001) in females compared to males. The rates were significantly higher in males in public health regions 10 and 11, which are predominantly non-metropolitan counties. Conclusions In Texas there is substantial geographic variation in hospitalization rates associated with gender and race/ethnicity. Other factors that may contribute to the variation and require further investigation include differences in smoking and exposure to other environmental risk factors, access to primary care, medical practice patterns, and coding practices.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%