Diabetes

Biography

Biography: Dr. Priscilla Okunji

Abstract

In this study we assessed the differences in outcomes between a Minority Large Urban Teaching (MLUT) hospital and Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, National Inpatient Stay (HCUP-NIS) datasets among diabetic patients discharged from non-federal hospital in 2012, in the United States. Sample of 1,437,975 and 2,185 subjects diagnosed with type 2 diabetes were extracted from national and MLUT datasets respectively using the International Classification Data, ICD 9 codes 25000 based on hospital location, size, teaching and ownership status. The result of the study showed that gender distribution was comparable according to the hospital categories with more females (7%) were admitted than their male counterparts. The MLUT data had 42.2% males and 57.8% females compared to the national (49.1% male and 50.9% females). For ethnicity, MLUT had 2.2% white, and 97.8% black compared to the national (55.6% white, 21.4 % black, 9.0% hispanic and 14.0% others). For age distribution, national hospitals had more age groups (40-59 years) and (80 years or older) admitted while MLUT hospitals admitted more diabetics of 40 – 59 years age group. A significant difference (~23%) in admission to national hospitals was noted for patients with income ($39,000 - 47,999) while patients with income range ($48,000 – $62,000) were admitted more (~26%) in MLUT. Patient outcomes were comparable, however, a difference (5%) was noted for hospital stay and hospital charges (13.3%) of patients with hospital charges of less than $20,000 than those admitted in national hospitals with same charges. The overall outcomes showed a significant difference between the hospital categories for length of stay and hospital charges but not for mortality rates. Hence the MLUT patients stayed more in the hospital with more charges but no significant difference was observed in mortality rates between the hospital categories. The authors call for the study to be replicated with more samples from minority large urban teaching hospitals and to incorporate higher statistical analytics to ascertain the impact of the variables on the outcomes for a more validated result.