Measuring health disparities using a continuous social risk factor.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To propose and evaluate a novel approach for measuring hospital-level disparities according to the effect of a continuous, polysocial risk factor on those outcomes.

Study setting

Our cohort consisted of Medicare Fee-for-Service (FFS) patients 65 years and older admitted to acute care hospitals for one of six common conditions or procedures. Medicare administrative claims data for six hospital readmission measures including hospitalizations from July 2015 to June 2018 were used.

Study design

We adapted existing methodologies that were developed to report hospital-level disparities using dichotomous social risk factors (SRFs). The existing methods report disparities within and across hospitals; we developed and tested modified approaches for both methods using

SUBMITTER: Herrin J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9836958 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature