Is thirty-day hospital mortality really lower for black veterans compared with white veterans?

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To examine the source of observed lower risk-adjusted mortality for blacks than whites within the Veterans Affairs (VA) system by accounting for hospital site where treated, potential under-reporting of black deaths, discretion on hospital admission, quality improvement efforts, and interactions by age group.

Data sources

Data are from the VA Patient Treatment File on 406,550 hospitalizations of veterans admitted with a principal diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction, stroke, hip fracture, gastrointestinal bleeding, congestive heart failure, or pneumonia between 1996 and 2002. Information on deaths was obtained from the VA Beneficiary Identification Record Locator System and the National Death Index.

Study design

This was a retrospective observational stu

SUBMITTER: Volpp KG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1955274 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature