@article{ref1,
title="Racial disparities in post-discharge healthcare utilization after trauma",
journal="American journal of surgery",
year="2019",
author="Fat, Shelby Chun and Herrera-Escobar, Juan P. and Seshadri, Anupamaa J. and Al Rafai, Syeda S. and Hashmi, Zain G. and de Jager, Elzerie and Velmahos, Constantine and Kasotakis, George and Velmahos, George and Salim, Ali and Haider, Adil H. and Nehra, Deepika",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="BACKGROUND: Racial disparities in trauma outcomes have been documented, but little is known about racial differences in post-discharge healthcare utilization. This study compares the utilization of post-discharge healthcare services by African-American and Caucasian trauma patients. <br><br>METHODS: Trauma patients with an Injury Severity Score (ISS)≥9 from three Level-I trauma centers were contacted between 6 and 12 months post-injury. Utilization of trauma-related healthcare services was asked. Coarsened exact matching (CEM) was used to match African-American and Caucasian patients. Conditional logistic regression then compared matched patients in terms of post-discharge healthcare utilization. <br><br>RESULTS: 182 African-American and 1,117 Caucasian patients were followed. Of these, 141 African-Americans were matched to 628 Caucasians. After CEM, we found that African-American patients were less likely to use rehabilitation services [OR:0.64 (95% CI:0.43-0.95)] and had fewer injury-related outpatient visits [OR:0.59 (95% CI:0.40-0.86)] after discharge. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: This study shows the existence of racial disparities in post-discharge healthcare utilization after trauma for otherwise similarly injured, matched patients.<br><br>Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier Inc.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0002-9610",
doi="10.1016/j.amjsurg.2019.03.024",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amjsurg.2019.03.024"
}