Addressing ethnic disparities in imaging utilization and clinical outcomes for COVID-19.
Clin Imaging
; 77: 276-282, 2021 Sep.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1275221
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE:
Racial and ethnic disparities have exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic as the healthcare system is overwhelmed. While Hispanics are disproportionately affected by COVID-19, little is known about ethnic disparities in the hospital settings. This study investigates imaging utilization and clinical outcomes between Hispanic and non-Hispanic COVID-19 patients in the Emergency Department (ED) and during hospitalization.METHODS:
Through retrospective chart review, we included 331 symptomatic COVID-19 patients (mean age 53.2 years) at a metropolitan healthcare system from March to June 2020. Poisson regression was used to compare diagnostic imaging utilization and clinical outcomes between Hispanic and non-Hispanic patients.RESULTS:
After adjusting for confounders, no statistically significant difference was found between Hispanic and non-Hispanic patients for the number of weekly chest X-rays. Results were categorized into four clinicaloutcomes:
ED management (0.16 ± 0.05 vs. 0.14 ± 0.8, p0.79); requiring inpatient management (1.31 ± 0.11 vs. 1.46 ± 0.16, p0.43); ICU admission without invasive ventilation (1.4 ± 0.17 vs. 1.35 ± 0.26, p0.86); and ICU admission and ventilator support (3.29 ± 0.22 vs. 3.59 ± 0.37, p0.38). There were no statistically significant relative differences in adjusted prevalence rate between ethnic groups for all clinical outcomes (p > 0.05). There was a statistically significant longer adjusted length of stay (days) in non-Hispanics for two subcohorts inpatient management (8.16 ± 0.31 vs. 9.72 ± 0.5, p < 0.01) and ICU admission without invasive ventilation (10.39 ± 0.57 vs. 13.45 ± 1.13, p < 0.01).CONCLUSIONS:
For Hispanic and non-Hispanic COVID-19 patients in the ED or hospitalized, there were no statistically significant differences in imaging utilization and clinical outcomes.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Ethnicity
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Topics:
Long Covid
Limits:
Humans
/
Middle aged
Language:
English
Journal:
Clin Imaging
Journal subject:
Diagnostic Imaging
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
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