Quantifying rural disparity in healthcare utilization in the United States: Analysis of a large midwestern healthcare system.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

The objective of this study is to identify how predisposing characteristics, enabling factors, and health needs are jointly and individually associated with epidemiological patterns of outpatient healthcare utilization for patients who already interact and engage with a large healthcare system.

Methods

We retrospectively analyzed electronic medical record data from 1,423,166 outpatient clinic visits from 474,674 patients in a large healthcare system from June 2018-March 2019. We evaluated patients who exclusively visited rural clinics versus patients who exclusively visited urban clinics using Chi-square tests and the generalized estimating equation Poisson regression methodology. The outcome was healthcare use defined by the number of outpatient visits to clinics wi

SUBMITTER: Nuako A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8830640 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature