IPPCR - Health Disparities Research: Better Health Outcomes for All Part 3 of 4

>> Larissa Aviles-Santa: In this other example -- actually, it's one of the first publications on health disparities in the U.S. -- the authors, the investigators examined whether there was a difference in the use of reperfusion therapy among patients that were eligible to receive it based on clinical -- on their clinical picture. And what they did, they looked at a Medicare database.

Medicare is a public health insurance for people over the age of 65 and people with certain disabilities. And this is -- Medicare is in -- a health insurance in the U.S. So, the authors looked at a chart of patients who had suffered an acute myocardial infarction between 1994 and 1995. And they observed that the prevalence of diabetes,

hypertension, prior MI, and renal failure was significantly higher among Black men and women compared to non-Hispanic white men and women. But they also -- after adjusting for several factors, they also saw and they concluded that, despite their clinical profile, Black men and women were undergoing reperfusion therapy at a significantly lower rate than non-Hispanic white men

and women even when they needed it. And after adjusting for many factors, race still was the main factor that determined that difference. So, it is obvious that there is a racial difference in the results. Do we know why this difference? It is unclear why this difference. Do we know if this is a disparity?

It looks like there is a -- this is a disparity. The researchers pointed out that there were other factors that needed to be considered to understand what happened here -- for example, the preferences of the patient. Did the patient decline the procedure? The expertise and the preferences of the physician, some factors about the hospital, and the expertise,