Unraveling racial disparities in asthma emergency department visits using electronic healthcare records and machine learning.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Hospital emergency department (ED) visits by asthmatics differ based on race and season. The objectives of this study were to investigate season- and race-specific disparities for asthma risk, and to identify environmental exposure variables associated with ED visits among more than 42,000 individuals of African American (AA) and European American (EA) descent identified through electronic health records (EHRs).

Methods

We examined data from 42,375 individuals (AAs = 14,491, EAs = 27,884) identified in EHRs. We considered associated demographic (race, age, gender, insurance), clinical (smoking status, ED visits, FEV1%), and environmental exposures data (mold, pollen, and pollutants). Machine learning techniques, including random forest (RF), extreme gradient boosti

SUBMITTER: Adejare AA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8221365 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature