Patient Activation and Disparate Health Care Outcomes in a Racially Diverse Sample of Chronically Ill Older Adults

The Patient Activation Measure (PAM) assesses people's ability to self-manage their health. Variations in PAM score have been linked with health behaviors, outcomes, and potential disparities. This study assessed the relative impacts of activation, socio-demographic and clinical factors on heal...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of health care for the poor and underserved 2012-11, Vol.23 (4), p.1577-1589
Main Authors: Ryvicker, Miriam, Peng, Timothy R, Feldman, Penny Hollander
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accident and emergency departments
Aged
Behavior
Chronic Disease - therapy
Chronic illnesses
Chronic sickness
Continental Population Groups - statistics & numerical data
Emergency medical services
Emergency Service, Hospital - utilization
Female
Health care
Health education
Health inequalities
Health status
Healthcare Disparities - statistics & numerical data
Home health care
Hospitalization
Hospitals
Humans
Male
New York City
Older people
Patient Readmission - statistics & numerical data
Risk factors
Self Care - statistics & numerical data
Studies
Treatment Outcome
Urban Population - statistics & numerical data
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The Patient Activation Measure (PAM) assesses people's ability to self-manage their health. Variations in PAM score have been linked with health behaviors, outcomes, and potential disparities. This study assessed the relative impacts of activation, socio-demographic and clinical factors on health care outcomes in a racially diverse sample of chronically ill, elderly homecare patients. Using survey and administrative data from 249 predominantly non-White patients, logistic regression was conducted to examine the effects of activation level and patient characteristics on the likelihood of subsequent hospitalization and emergency department (ED) use. Activation was not a significant predictor of hospitalization or ED use in adjusted models. Non-Whites were more likely than Whites to have a hospitalization or ED visit. Obesity was a strong predictor of both outcomes. Further research should examine potential sources of disadvantage among chronically ill homecare patients to design effective interventions to reduce health disparities in this population.
ISSN:1049-2089
1548-6869
1548-6869
DOI:10.1353/hpu.2012.0157