TY - JOUR T1 - The importance of chronic conditions for potentially avoidable hospitalizations among non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic White older adults in the US: a cross-sectional observational study. JF - BMC Health Services Research Y1 - 2022 A1 - Jørgensen, Terese Sara Høj A1 - Allore, Heather A1 - Elman, Miriam R A1 - Nagel, Corey A1 - Quiñones, Ana R KW - Aged KW - Asthma KW - chronic KW - Chronic Obstructive KW - Heart Failure KW - Hospitalization KW - Humans KW - Medicare KW - Pulmonary Disease KW - Renal Insufficiency AB -

BACKGROUND: Non-Hispanic (NH) Black older adults experience substantially higher rates of potentially avoidable hospitalization compared to NH White older adults. This study explores the top three chronic conditions preceding hospitalization and potentially avoidable hospitalization among NH White and NH Black Medicare beneficiaries in the United States.

METHODS: Data on 4993 individuals (4,420 NH White and 573 NH Black individuals) aged ≥ 65 years from 2014 Medicare claims were linked with sociodemographic data from previous rounds of the Health and Retirement Study. Conditional inference random forests were used to rank the importance of chronic conditions in predicting hospitalization and potentially avoidable hospitalization separately for NH White and NH Black beneficiaries. Multivariable logistic regression with the top three chronic diseases for each outcome adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics were conducted to quantify the associations.

RESULTS: In total, 22.1% of NH White and 24.9% of NH Black beneficiaries had at least one hospitalization during 2014. Among those with hospitalization, 21.3% of NH White and 29.6% of NH Black beneficiaries experienced at least one potentially avoidable hospitalization. For hospitalizations, chronic kidney disease, heart failure, and atrial fibrillation were the top three contributors among NH White beneficiaries and acute myocardial infarction, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and chronic kidney disease were the top three contributors among NH Black beneficiaries. These chronic conditions were associated with increased odds of hospitalization for both groups. For potentially avoidable hospitalizations, asthma, COPD, and heart failure were the top three contributors among NH White beneficiaries and fibromyalgia/chronic pain/fatigue, COPD, and asthma were the top three contributors among NH Black beneficiaries. COPD and heart failure were associated with increased odds of potentially avoidable hospitalization among NH White beneficiaries, whereas only COPD was associated with increased odds of potentially avoidable hospitalizations among NH Black beneficiaries.

CONCLUSION: Having at least one hospitalization and at least one potentially avoidable hospitalization was more prevalent among NH Black than NH White Medicare beneficiaries. This suggests greater opportunity for increasing prevention efforts among NH Black beneficiaries. The importance of COPD for potentially avoidable hospitalizations further highlights the need to focus on prevention of exacerbations for patients with COPD, possibly through greater access to primary care and continuity of care.

VL - 22 IS - 1 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Multimorbidity Progression among Medicare Beneficiaries in the Health and Retirement Study (1992-2014) JF - Innovation in Aging Y1 - 2022 A1 - Quiñones, Ana R A1 - Markwardt, Sheila A1 - Allore, Heather A1 - Newsom, Jason A1 - Nagel, Corey A1 - Dorr, David A1 - Botoseneanu, Anda KW - Medicare Beneficiaries KW - multimorbidity progression AB - Older adults are at greater risk for developing and accumulating multimorbidity, defined as 2 or more chronic diseases. This study describes the characteristics of multimorbidity progression-based groups using Medicare claims chronic condition warehouse algorithms over a 24-year period. The HRS-Medicare linked data (1991-2015, N=17,895, age 67 years and older) were used in descriptive analyses presented as a Sankey flow diagram. We identified 1,293 (7.2%) beneficiaries who had not yet developed multimorbidity by the end of the observation period (no multimorbidity), 7,552 (42.2%) who started without but developed multimorbidity over the course of observation (incident multimorbidity), and 9,050 (50.6%) who had multimorbidity upon study entry (prevalent multimorbidity). There were notable differences between multimorbidity progression-based groups. Beneficiaries with prevalent multimorbidity were younger at baseline (73.1% in youngest age category [67-69] vs. 50.3% for incident and 66.7% for no multimorbidity), had proportionately higher levels of cognitive impairment (21.6% CIND/dementia vs. 15.4% for incident and 16.8% for no multimorbidity), and greater mean levels of functional impairment and healthcare utilization. Non-Hispanic Black beneficiaries were more represented in prevalent multimorbidity (15.4%) than in the incident (11.8%) and no multimorbidity groups (13.4%). Non-Hispanic White beneficiaries were more represented in the incident (83.5%) than the prevalent (77.2%) and the no multimorbidity (77.7%). Hispanic beneficiaries were more represented in the no (8.9%) than the prevalent (7.4%) and incident multimorbidity groups (4.7%). Results highlight beneficiaries who experience clinically-meaningful transitions to multimorbidity states in late life, allowing new insights and informing interventions to address burdensome changes to their chronic disease status. VL - 5 IS - Suppl 1 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Multimorbidity Progression among Medicare Beneficiaries in the Health and Retirement Study (1992-2014) JF - Innovation in Aging Y1 - 2021 A1 - Quiñones, Ana A1 - Markwardt, Sheila A1 - Allore, Heather A1 - Newsom, Jason A1 - Nagel, Corey A1 - Dorr, David A1 - Botoseneanu, Anda AB - Older adults are at greater risk for developing and accumulating multimorbidity, defined as 2 or more chronic diseases. This study describes the characteristics of multimorbidity progression-based groups using Medicare claims chronic condition warehouse algorithms over a 24-year period. The HRS-Medicare linked data (1991-2015, N=17,895, age 67 years and older) were used in descriptive analyses presented as a Sankey flow diagram. We identified 1,293 (7.2%) beneficiaries who had not yet developed multimorbidity by the end of the observation period (no multimorbidity), 7,552 (42.2%) who started without but developed multimorbidity over the course of observation (incident multimorbidity), and 9,050 (50.6%) who had multimorbidity upon study entry (prevalent multimorbidity). There were notable differences between multimorbidity progression-based groups. Beneficiaries with prevalent multimorbidity were younger at baseline (73.1% in youngest age category [67-69] vs. 50.3% for incident and 66.7% for no multimorbidity), had proportionately higher levels of cognitive impairment (21.6% CIND/dementia vs. 15.4% for incident and 16.8% for no multimorbidity), and greater mean levels of functional impairment and healthcare utilization. Non-Hispanic Black beneficiaries were more represented in prevalent multimorbidity (15.4%) than in the incident (11.8%) and no multimorbidity groups (13.4%). Non-Hispanic White beneficiaries were more represented in the incident (83.5%) than the prevalent (77.2%) and the no multimorbidity (77.7%). Hispanic beneficiaries were more represented in the no (8.9%) than the prevalent (7.4%) and incident multimorbidity groups (4.7%). Results highlight beneficiaries who experience clinically-meaningful transitions to multimorbidity states in late life, allowing new insights and informing interventions to address burdensome changes to their chronic disease status. VL - 5 IS - Suppl 1 ER -