Use of major therapeutic procedures: are Hispanics treated differently than non-Hispanic Whites

This study examines whether Hispanics and non-Hispanic White patients, hospitalized with one of a wide range of conditions, receive major therapeutic procedures at the same rates.

The study examined hospital stays of Hispanic and non-Hispanic White adults using 1993 discharge abstract data from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project State Inpatient Database for California, Florida and New York, states containing half the Hispanic population in the country. Logistic regression modeling was used to identify the effect of ethnicity on the likelihood of receiving a major therapeutic procedure separately for 63 conditions, controlling for age, gender, disease severity, health insurance, income level of patient's community, and hospital characteristics.

Hispanics are less likely than non-Hispanic Whites to receive major therapeutic procedures for 38% of the 63 conditions examined and more likely for 6% of the conditions.

This study identified many conditions with apparent variations in treatment based on patient ethnicity. Future studies should examine reasons for disparities between ethnic groups, why these disparities occur for some conditions and not others, and appropriateness of procedures received.