National Healthcare Disparities Report - LDI Health Economist

Highlights
n Quality is improving slowly for all groups:
o Across all measures of health care quality tracked in the reports, almost 60% showed
improvement. However, median rate of change was only 2.5% per year.
o Improvement included all groups defined by age, race, ethnicity, and income.
Figure H.4. Number and proportion of all access measures that are improving, not changing, or
worsening, overall and for select populations
Improving
No Change
Worsening
100
2
2
1
1
1
1
2
80
Percent
60
40
20
0
Total (n=15)
7
12
6
11 11
9
6
6
1
65+ (n=9)
Black (n=15)
3 2
Asian (n=12)
AI/AN (n=9)
Hispanic (n=15)
4
2
Poor (n=15)
Key: AI/AN = American Indian or Alaska Native; n = number
of measures.
Improving = Access is going in a positive direction at an
average annual rate greater than 1% per year.
No Change = Access is not changing or is changing at an
average annual rate less than 1% per year.
Worsening = Access is going in a negative direction at an
average annual rate greater than 1% per year.
n Access is not improving for most groups:
o Across the measures of health care access tracked in the reports, about 50% did not show
improvement and 40% were headed in the wrong direction. Median rate of change was -0.8% per
year, indicating no change over time.
o Adults age 65 and over improved on about one-quarter of access measures. No group defined by
race, ethnicity, or income showed significant improvement.
A similar method for assessing change in disparities using weighted least squares regression results is used.
When a selected group’s rate of change is at least 1% higher than the reference group’s rate of change and this
difference in rates of change is statistically significant, we label the disparity as improving. When a selected
group’s rate of change is at least 1% lower than the reference group’s rate of change and this difference in rates
of change is statistically significant, we label the disparity as worsening. When the difference is less than 1%
or not statistically significant, we label the disparity as static. As with trends, because of the addition of
significance testing, this year’s results cannot be compared with results in previous reports.
6 National Healthcare Disparities Report, 2011