Access to Health Care Improves COVID-19 Vaccination and Mitigates Health Disparities Among Medicare Beneficiaries.

ABSTRACT:

Background

COVID-19 disproportionately impacts the elderly, particularly racial/ethnic minorities and those with low socioeconomic status (SES). These latter groups may also have higher vaccine hesitancy. We aim to evaluate if access to care improves COVID-19 vaccination rates and improves health disparities.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective cohort study of Medicare patients receiving care in a high-touch capitated network across ten states. We collected type and date of COVID-19 vaccine and demographic and clinical data from the inpatient and outpatient electronic health records and socioeconomic status from the US census. Our primary outcome was completing vaccination using logistic regression.

Results

Our cohort included 93,224 patients enrolled in the network

SUBMITTER: Lane J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9518942 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature